
Class 



i } 



BootlW _ 
Copyright*^ 



COFVFJGHT DEPOSIT. 




Jefferson Davis 

(From a photograph taken in 1865) 



The Real 
Jefferson Davis 



'By 

LANDON KNIGHT 



"Where once raged the storm of battle now 
bloom the gentle flowers of peace, and 
there where the mockingbird sings her 
night song to the southern moon, sweetly 
sleeps the illustrious chieftain whom a na- 
tion mourns. Wise in council, valiant in 
war, he was still greater in peace, and to 
his noble, unselfish example more than to 
any other one cause do we owe the indelli- 
ble inscription over the arch of our union, 
'Esto Perpetual " 



PUBLISHED BY 

THE PILGRIM MAGAZINE COMPANY 

BATTLE CREEK, MICH. 
1904 



E- 



T\ 



\ 



■ 

■ i t 



Copyright, 1904, 

THB .PILGRIM MAGAZINE CO. 

I BSttle Creek, Mich. 



DEDICATION 



To My Wife 

Is dedicated this little volume in ap- 
preciation of that innate sense of 
justice which has ever loved and 
followed the right for its own sake. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 
I 


Birth and Education 


PAGE 
11 


II 


Service in the Army 


21 


III 


His Life at Briarfield . 


29 


IV 


First Appearance in Politics 


35 


V 


Enters Mexican War 


41 


VI 


The Hero of Buena Vista . 


45 


VII 


Enters the Senate 


49 


VIII 


Becomes Secretary of War 


. 53 


IX 


He Re-enters the Senate 


59 


X 


Still Hoped to Save the Union 


67 


XI 


President of the Confederacy 


75 


XII 


His First Inaugural 


79 


XIII 


Delays and Blunders 


85 


XIV 


The Bombardment of Sumter 


91 


XV 


Conditions in the South 


97 


XVI 


The First Battle 


. 101 


XVII 


A Lost Opportunity 


105 


XVIII 


The Quarrel with Johnston 


. Ill 


XIX 


The Battle of Shiloh . 


115 


XX 


The Seven Days of Battle 


. 121 


XXI 


Butler's Infamous Order 28 


125 


XXII 


Mental Imperfections 


. 131 


XXIII 


Blunders of the Western Army 
[5] 


135 



Contents 



Chapter page 

XXIV Davis and Gettysburg . . .139 

XXV The Chief of a Heroic People . 145 

XXVI Sherman and Johnston . . 151 

XXVII Mr. Davis' Humanity . . 155 

XXVIII General Lee's Surrender . . 161 

XXIX The Capture of Davis . . 167 

XXX A Nation's Shame . . .173 

XXXI Efforts to Execute Mr. Davis . 177 

XXXII Indictment of Mr. Davis . . 183 

XXXIII Why Davis Was Not Tried for Treason 187 

XXXIV Freedom — Reverses — Beauvoir . 193 
XXXV Death of Mr. Davis ... 199 



[6] 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



FACING PAGE 



Jefferson Davis . . . Frontispiece 
Jefferson Davis' Birthplace, at Fairview, Ky. 15 
Where Jefferson Davis Boarded While in Lexing- 
ton. 17 

Transylvania College at Lexington . . 19 

Jefferson Davis at Thirty-five . . .31 

Briarfield, Jefferson Davis' Home . . 33 

The Room in the Briars in Which Jefferson Davis 

Was Married . . . . .37 

General Taylor and Colonel Davis at Monterey 43 
The Charge of Colonel Davis' Regiment at Buena 

Vista ..... 47 

Jefferson Davis as United States Senator in 1847 51 
Jefferson Davis as Secretary of War . . 57 

The Capitol at Richmond ... 77 

Interior of Fort Sumter after the Surrender 93 

Henry Clay Addressing the Senate on the Missouri 

Compromise . . . . .99 

Edward Ruffin . . . . . 103/ 

Robert Toombs ..... 107 

General Joseph E. Johnston . . . Ill 

Generals Lee, Jackson and Johnston . . 113 

C. G. Memminger .... 119 



[7] 



Illustrations 

FACING PAGE 

The Site of the Prison Camp on the James River 

Below Richmond . . . .133 

On the Field of Cold Harbor Today . 137 

The Battle of the Crater . . . .143 

Mr. and Mrs. Davis in 1863 ... 147 

The Davis Children in 1863 . . .153 

The Famous Libby Prison as It Appeared at the 

Close of the War ... 157 

The Surrender of Lee . . . .163 

Richmond as Gen. Weitzel Entered It . 169 

The Davis Mansion . . . .195 

The Davis Monument at Richmond . . 201 



[8] 



PREFACE 



For four years Jefferson Davis was the cen- 
tral and most conspicuous figure in the great- 
est revolution of history. Prior to that time 
no statesman of his day left a deeper or -more 
permanent impress upon legislation. His 
achievements alone as Secretary of War en- 
title him to rank as a benefactor of his country. 
But notwithstanding all of this he is less 
understood than any other man in history. 
This fact induced me a year ago to compile 
a series of magazine articles which had the 
single purpose in view of painting the real 
Jefferson Davis as he was. Of course, the 
task was a difficult one under any circum- 
stances, and almost an impossible one in the 
restricted scope of six papers, as it appeared 
in The Pilgrim. However, the public accord- 
[9] 



Preface. 

ing to these papers an interest far beyond my 
expectation, I have decided to revise and pub- 
lish them in book form. 

This work does not attempt an exhaustive 
treatment of the subject but, as the author 
has tried faithfully and without prejudice or 
predilection to paint the soldier, the statesman, 
the private citizen as he was, he trusts that 
this little volume may not be unacceptable to 
those who love the truth for its own sake. 

L. K. 
Akron, Ohio, Aug. 16, 190%. 



[10] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 



I. Birth and Education 



Almost four decades have passed since 
the surrender at Greensboro of Johnston to 
Sherman finally terminated the most stupen- 
dous and sanguinary civil war of history. 
Few of the great actors in that mighty drama 
still linger on the world's stage. But of the 
living and of the dead, irrespective of whether 
they wore the blue or the gray, history has, 
with one exception, delivered her award, 
which, while it is not free from the blemish 
of imperfection, is nevertheless, in the main, 
the verdict by which posterity will abide. 
The one exception is Jefferson Davis. Why | 
this is so may be explained in a few words. 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

Occupying, as he did, the most exalted 
station in the government of the seceding 
states, he became from the day of his acces- 
sion to the presidency, the embodiment of two 
diametrically opposite ideas. The loyal peo- 
ple of the North, disregarding the fact that the 
Confederacy was a representative government 
of limited powers, that a regularly elected 
congress made the laws, often against the judg- 
ment of the chief executive, that many of the 
policies most bitterly condemned by them were 
inaugurated against his advice, transformed 
the agent into the principal and visited upon 
him all of the odium attaching to the govern- 
'ment that he represented. Nay, more than 
this. The bitter passions engendered in the 
popular mind by the conflict clothed him with 
responsibility, not only for every obnoxious 
act of his government, but, forgetful of the 
history of the fifty years preceding the Civil 
War, saddled upon him the chief sins of the 
[12] 



Birth and Education 

very genesis of the doctrine of secession it- 
self. Thus confounded with the principles of 
his government and the policies by which it 
sought to establish them, the acts for which 
he may be held justly responsible have been 
magnified and distorted while the valuable 
services previously rendered to his country, 
were forgotten or minimized, and Jefferson 
Davis as he was disappeared, absorbed, amal- 
gamated, into the selfish ai?ch traitor intent 
upon the destruction of the Union to gratify his 
unrighteous ambition. 

The masses of the Southern people, on the 
other hand, holding in proud remembrance 
the gallant soldier of the Mexican War and 
deeply appreciative of his able advocacy of 
principles which they firmly believed to be 
sacredly just, regarded their chief magistrate 
as the sublimation of all the virtues inherent 
in the cause for which they fought. When 
the Confederacy collapsed, the indignities 
[13] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

heaped upon its chief, his long imprisonment 
and the fact that he alone was selected for 
perpetual disfranchisement added the martyr's 
crown to the halo of the hero, thus creating 
in the South an almost universal mental atti- 
tude of affection and sympathy, which was as 
fatal to the ascertainment of the exact and un- 
biased truth of history as were the rancor and 
bitterness that prevailed at the North. That 
this prejudice and predilection still exist can- 
not be doubted. But time has plucked the 
sting of malice from the one and has dulled 
the romantic glamor of the other sufficiently 
to enable us to examine the events that gave 
birth to both with that calm and dispassion- 
ate criticism which subrogates every other 
consideration to the discovery of truth. I do 
not underestimate the difficulties that beset 
the self-imposed task, but to the best of my 
humble ability and free from every motive 
except that of portraying the impartial truth, 

[14] 



Birth and Education 

I shall endeavor to delineate the life of the 
real Jefferson Davis. 

Contrary to the belief still somewhat preva- 
lent, Jefferson Davis was not descended from 
a line of aristocratic progenitors, but sprang 
from the ranks of that middle class which 
has produced most of the great men of the 
world. About the year 1715 three brothers 
came to this country from ^Ealse^and located > 
in Philadelphia. The younger, Evan Davis, 
eventually went to the colony of Georgia and 
there married a widow by the name of Wil- 
liams. The only child of that union, Samuel j 
Davis, enlisted at the age of seventeen as a j 
private soldier in the War of the Revolution. 
Later he organized a company of mounted 
men and at its head participated in most of 
the battles of the campaign that forced Lord 
Cornwallis out of the Carolinas. At the close 
of the war he married Jane Cook, a girl of 
Scotch-Irish descent, of humble station, but 

[15] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

noted for strength of character and great per- 
sonal beauty, and they settled on a farm near 
Augusta, Ga. In 1804 Samuel Davis removed 
with his family to southwestern Kentucky to 
engage in stock raising and tobacco planting, 
and there, in a modest farmhouse, which was 
then in Christian County and not many miles 
from the cabin where a few months later 
Abraham Lincoln opened his eyes upon the 
light of the world, Jefferson Davis was born, 
June 3, 1808. The spot is now in Todd 
County, and upon it stands the Baptist church 
of Fairview. While he was still an infant, 
the hope of there better providing for a nu- 
merous family caused his father to seek a new 
home on Bayou Teche in Louisiana. The 
country, however, proved unhealthful, and he 
remained but a few months. He finally 
bought a farm near Woodville in Wilkinson 
County, Miss., where he spent the remainder 
of his long life, poor, but respected and es- 

[16] 



Birth and Education 
teemed as a man of fine sense and sterling 

character. 

Jefierson Davis' first tuition was at a log 
schoolhouse, near fiis home, bnt the educa- 
tional advantages of that time and place were 
so meager that when seven years old he was 
sent to a Catholic institution known as Jfc.. 
Thomas' College, and there, under the guid- 
ance of that truly good man and priest, Father 
Wallace, afterward Bishop of Nashville, his 
education really began. After some years iu 
this school, he entered Transylvania Univer- 
sity, at Lexington, Ky., then the principal col- 
legiate institution west of the Alleghanies and 
famous many years thereafter as the alma 
mater of a distinguished array of soldiers and 
statesmen. In November, 1823, when in his ■ 
senior year at Transylvania, through the ef- 
forts of his brother, Joseph Davis, he was ap- 
pointed by President Monroe a cadet at West 
Point. The following year he entered that in- 

[17] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

stitution and after pursuing the customary 
course of four years, was graduated in July, 
1828, with a very low class standing. 

He was then in his twenty-first year. The 
period in which the principal foundations of 
character are laid had passed. What this im- 
portant period of life had developed is, there- 
fore, both interesting and instructive. For- 
tunately, this information is obtainable 
through evidence which in conclusive. More 
than a half score of his classmates at Transyl- 
vania and at West Point, who subsequently 
played important parts in the history of the 
country, have left us their impressions of Jef- 
ferson Davis during that period of his life. 
This information is supplemented by his in- 
structors at both institutions. All of this tes- 
timony was recorded previous to the occur- 
rence of any of the later events in his life 
which might have biased the judgment, and 
all of the witnesses corroborate each other. 
[18] 



Birth and Education 

Without entering into any extended discussion 
of this evidence, we may safely conclude from 
it that in his youth he was one of those pecul- 
iarly normal characters whose well-ordered 
existence leaves but little material for the 
biographer. Few inequalities and no excesses 
are discoverable. He seems to have possessed 
one of those refined natures that abhor vice 
and immorality of every kind. While he 
made no pretensions to piety, and, apparently 
selected no associations with this view of 
avoiding contamination, his moral character 
was without a blemish. Nor was he, as has 
been represented, haughty, impulsive and 
domineering, but, on the contrary, his nature 
seems to have been remarkably gentle and his 
bearing free from pretensions of every kind. 
He had opinions, and his convictions were 
strong, but he neither reached them hastily nor 
maintained them with arrogance. He was se- 
rious, somewhat reserved, always cheerful, 

[19] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

sometimes gay. In his manner he was thor- 
oughly democratic, but free from any sug- 
gestion of demagoguery. He was slow to 
anger, easily mollified, without malice and 
possessed in a remarkable degree that ingen- 
uous and credulous nature which a long and 
eventful life never impaired and which was re- 
sponsible, in no small degree, for many of the 
fatal mistakes of later years. If at this time 
he possessed any of those mental powers which 
later in life won the admiration even of his 
enemies, he gave no indication of the fact. 
He was an indifferent student, always some- 
what deficient in mathematics, and never par- 
ticularly proficient in any other branch, im- 
pressing those who knew him best as an ordi- 
nary youth of fair capacity and of about the 
attainments requisite to pass the examinations. 



[20] 



II. Service in the 
Army 



Thus equipped by nature and education, 
Jefferson Davis was commissioned, upon leav- 
ing West Point, a second lieutenant, and was 
assigned to duty with the First Kegiment of 
Infantry at Fort Crawford. The life of a 
second lieutenant on a frontier post in time of 
peace, unless under exceptional circumstances, 
is not likely to provide many incidents of a 
nature to illuminate his character, test his 
higher capacity or to greatly interest poster- 
ity. The circumstances in this case were not 
exceptional, and during the next seven years 
there was nothing in the career of Lieutenant 
Davis worthy of preservation that cannot be 
recorded in few words. It was the most bar- 
ren period of his life. At Fort Crawford, 
at the Galena lead mines and at Winnebago 

[21] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

he was employed in the police duty that our 
army at that time performed on the frontier 
which consisted chiefly of building forts and 
trying to preserve the peace between the In- 
dians and encroaching settlers. In the per- 
formance of all of the duties to which he was 
assigned, he acquitted himself creditably and 
earned the reputation of being a conscientious, 
intelligent and efficient officer. At one time 
during this service an opportunity to win dis- 
tinction seemed imminent. Black Hawk, 
driven to desperation by the continuous en- 
croachment of the pioneers upon the hunting 
grounds of his people, formed what was then 
believed to be a powerful coalition of all of 
the Indian tribes of the Northwest. But the 
coalition soon fell to pieces, and the war, with 
its few slight skirmishes, turned out to be 
nothing more serious than an Indian raid, 
which was speedily terminated. An incident 
happened at the beginning of these troubles 

[22] 



Service in the Army 

which, in the light of subsequent events, is 
perhaps, worthy of preservation. The gover- 
nor of Illinois called out the state forces and 
mobilized them at Dixon. General Scott sent 
there from Fort Snelling two lieutenants of 
the regular army to muster them into service. 
One of them was Lieutenant Davis and the 
other was the future major who so gallantly 
sustained the fire of Beauregard's heavy guns 
against the old walls of Fort Sumter. Among 
the captains of the companies to be mustered 
in was one who was hardly the ideal of a 
soldierly figure. He was tall, awkward and 
homely, and was arrayed in a badly fitting 
suit of blue jeans, garnished with large and 
resplendent brass buttons. He presented him- 
self and was sworn in and thus probably the 
first time in his life that Abraham Lincoln 
ever took the oath of allegiance to the United 
States it was administered to him by Jeffer- 
son Davis. 

[23] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

Soon after the engagement at Stillman Bun, 
Black Hawk and several of his more trouble- 
some warriors surrendered to the United 
States forces and were sent as prisoners in 
charge of Lieutenant Davis to Jefferson Bar- 
racks. In his autobiography the old chief de- 
scribes this journey in a way that leaves 
nothing to be guessed of the bitterness he felt, 
but he does not fail to express his appreciation 
of " the young white chief who alone treated 
me with the courtesy and consideration due 
to an honorable, vanquished enemy." About 
a year after Lieutenant Davis' return from 
this mission to Fort Crawford, an incident oc- 
curred, which, while unimportant in itself, 
was destined to produce far-reaching conse- 
quences. Col. Zachary Taylor was assigned to 
the command of the First Regiment, and with 
him came his family to Fort Crawford. His 
daughter, Miss_Sarah Taylor, and Lieutenant 
Davis soon conceived an ardent affection for 

[24] 



Service in the Army 

each other, and their marriage would have 
followed within the year had it not been pre- 
vented by Colonel Taylor. The cause of his 
opposition to the marriage has been the source 
of much speculation and of many absurd 
stories. The bare fact of the case is that Tay- 
lor's opposition to Davis as a son-in-law was 
based solely upon the privations that con- 
fronted the wife of a soldier, — a not alto- 
gether unreasonable objection when we con- 
sider army life on the frontier at that time. 
Convinced of the fact, however, that his own 
family considered the reasons of his opposi- 
tion unsound, he determined to find what, 
at least to him, would prove weightier ones, 
and proceeded to seek a quarrel with his 
daughter's suitor. He found a pretext in a 
court martial, where, upon some trivial point, 
Davis voted against Taylor with a certain 
Major Smith. Taylor and Smith were not 
upon friendly terms, and thereupon the 

[25] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

former flew into a violent rage, and in lan- 
guage which needed no additional strength to 
convince one that he fully deserved his sobri- 
quet of Old Kough and Keady, he swore that 
Davis should never marry his daughter, and 
forbade him to enter his house as a visitor. In 
striking contrast to his intended father-in-law, 
Davis comported himself throughout this af- 
fair as a gentleman, and during the next two 
years sought in a manly way to reverse the 
irate old warrior's decision. However, all of 
his efforts were unavailing, and finally con- 
vinced that the task was a hopeless one, but 
resolved to remove the only substantial objec- 
tion, he in the summer of 1835, resigned his 
commission in the army. A few weeks later 
he and Miss Taylor were married at the home 
of one of her aunts in Kentucky. But his 
new-found happiness was destined to a sad 
and untimely end, for in September of the 
same year, while visiting his sister near Bayou 

[26] 



Service in the Army 

Sara, in Louisiana, both he and his bride were 
simultaneously stricken down with malarial 
fever and in a few days she succumbed to the 
disease. He was passionately devoted to his 
wife, and her death inflicted a blow from 
which he did not finally recover for many years. 
The winter following the death of his wife was 
spent in Havana and at Washington, and in 
the spring of 1836 he returned to Mississippi 
to take up with his brother, Joseph, the 
threads of a new life, the influence of which 
upon his future destiny has never been prop- 
erlv estimated. 



[27] 



III. His Life at Briar- 
field 



Joseph Davis was in many respects a re- 
markable man. Educated for the bar, he 
abandoned the practice of law, after a success- 
ful career, when he was still a young man, 
and embarked in the business of cotton plant- 
ing. He succeeded, acquired two large plan- 
tations known as " The Hurricane " and 
u Briarfield," and soon became a wealthy 
man. But he was something more than a rich 
cotton planter. He was a man of great 
strength and force of character, a student 
possessed of a vast fund of information, and 
a clear and logical reasoner. He read much 
and thought deeply, if not always correctly, 
along the lines of political government and 
economic science. Always refusing to take an 
active part in politics, it was, neverthe- 

[29] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

less, a subject in which he was deeply inter- 
ested. He was partially in sympathy with the 
principles of the democratic party, but in 
that academic, strict and literal construction 
of the Constitution and upon the question of 
state rights he occupied a position far in ad- 
vance of that political organization — a posi- 
tion even beyond that assumed by Mr. Cal- 
houn in his advocacy of the doctrine of nulli- 
fication. 

From this brother Jefferson Davis pur- 
chased " Briarfield," and arrangements were 
made by which they lived together and jointly 
managed the plantations. Owning a large 
number of slaves, they inaugurated a policy 
for their management which is no less inter- 
esting in itself than for the results attained. 
It was based upon the political maxim of the 
elder brother that the less people are governed, 
the better and stronger and more law-abiding 
they become. All rules that involved unnec- 

[30] 




Jefferson Davis at Thirty-five 



His Life at Briar field 

essary supervision and espionange of any kind 
were abolished. The slaves were placed upon 
honor and were left free to go and come as 
they pleased. Corporal punishment was only 
inflicted in cases involving moral turpitude, 
and only then after the trial and conviction of 
the accused by a jury of his peers, during 
the process of which all of the rules governing 
the production and admission of evidence ob- 
served in a court of justice, were scrupulously 
adhered to. The pardoning power alone was 
retained by the masters, and that they fre- 
quently exercised. Whenever a slave felt his 
services were more valuable to himself than 
they were to his master, he was allowed by the 
payment of a very reasonable price for his 
time to embark in any enterprise he wished, 
the brothers counseling and advising him, fre- 
quently loaning him money and always pat- 
ronizing him in preference to other tradesmen. 
A copy of a page from one of the books of a 

[31] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

slave, bearing the date of Sept. 24, 1842, is 
before me, and upon it J. E. and J. Davis 
are credited with $1,893.50. Another slave 
usually purchased the entire fruit crop of the 
two plantations, and there were still others 
who conducted independent and successful 
business operations. Some of those slaves in 
after years became respected and substantial 
citizens, one of them purchasing the planta- 
tions for something less than $300,000, which 
had been offered by a white competitor. 
> In their intercourse with their slaves, the 
/ brothers observed the utmost courtesy. With 
the idea that it involved disrespect, they for- 
bade the abbreviation of Christian or the ap- 
plication of nicknames to any of their servants. 
Jefferson Davis' manager, James Pemberton, 
was always received on his business calls in 
the drawing-room, and the dignified master 
met the equally dignified slave upon exactly 
the same plane that he would have met his 

[32] 




n 



His Life at Briar field 

■oker or his lawyer. From the practice of 
is system two results followed: A large for- 
ne was accumulated and the slaves became 
oroughly loyal and devoted to their masters. 
But, as great as must have been the influ- 
Lces of this life in forming the character of 
Person Davis, still greater and of more im- 
>rtance, perhaps, must be regarded the rig- 
ous mental training which he derived from 
During the period of their residence to- 
ither, the time not required by business the 
others devoted to reading and discussions, 
olitical economy and law, the science of gov- 
nment in general and that of the United 
;ates in particular, were the favorite themes. 
:>cke and Justinian, Mill, Adam Smith and 
attel divided honors with the Federalist, the 
esolutions of Ninety-Eight and the Debates 
the Constitutional Convention. It was said 
ey knew every word of the three latter by 
emory, and it is certain that year after year, 
[33] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

almost without interruption, they sat far into 
the night debating almost every conceivable 
question that could arise under the Constitu- 
tion of the United States. 



[34] 



IV. First Appearance 
in Politics 



The first appearance of Jefferson Davis in 
politics would be hardly worthy of mention, 
if it were not for the fact that the event was 
used in after years to lend color to a baseless 
calumny. The Democratic party of Warren 
County nominated Mr. Davis for the Legis- 
lature in 1843, and although the normal Whig 
majority was a large one, he was defeated 
only by a few votes. Some years previous to 
that time the state had repudiated certain 
bank bonds which it had guaranteed, and in 
that canvass this question was an issue. Mr. 
Davis assumed the position that as the Consti- 
tution provided that the state might be sued 
in such cases, the question as to whether the 
bonds constituted a valid debt was one pri- 
marily for the courts rather than for the Leg- 

[35] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

islature to decide. Referring to this contro- 
versy, General Scott in his autobiography says, 
" These bonds were repudiated mainly by Mr. 
Jefferson Davis ; " and during the Civil War 
the same propaganda was urged in England 
by Robert J. Walker. The well-known im- 
perfection of General Scott's knowledge on 
most matters political serves, in some measure, 
tc palliate his error; but as General Walker 
was, at that time, a senator in Congress from 
Mississippi, it is difficult to believe that he 
erred through lack of information or that he 
was ignorant of the fact that when the Legis- 
lature finally refused to heed the mandate of 
the courts and provide for the payment of 
those obligations, Mr. Davis, as a private citi- 
zen, advocated a subscription to satisfy the 
debt, and that this very act was later used by 
the repucliators as their chief argument 
against his election to Congress. 

Mr. Davis took a conspicuous part in the 

[36] 



First Appearance in Politics 

presidential campaign of 1844, and was chosen 
one of the Polk electors. Before this cam- 
paign he was but slightly known beyond his 
own county; but at its conclusion his popular- 
ity had become so great that there was a gen- 
eral demand in the ranks of his party that he 
should become a candidate for Congress in the 
following year. 

On February 26, 1845, he was united in 
marriage to Miss Anna Varina Howell, of 
Natchez, and in the following month entered 
upon the canvass which resulted in his election 
by a large majority. He took his seat in the 
Twenty-Ninth Congress, December 8, 1845. 

In that body were many men whose lives 
were destined to exert an influence upon his 
own fate in no small degree. Among them 
was that ungainly captain of volunteers to 
whom we have seen him administering the 
oath of allegiance at Fort Snelling, and a 
strong rugged, wilful man, who, in his youth, 

[371 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

had been the town tailor of the little village 
of Greenville, in Tennessee. 

Practically the only question involved in 
the campaign of 1844 was the admission of 
the Republic of Texas as a state of the Union. 
Mexico had declared that she would regard 
that act as tantamount to a declaration of war, 
and all parties in the Twenty-Ninth Congress 
now recognized the conflict as inevitable. Nor 
was it long delayed. One of President Polk's 
first official acts was to order General Taylor 
to proceed to the Bio Grande and defend it 
as the western boundary of the United States. 
Proceeding to a point opposite Matamoras, he 
was there attacked by the Mexicans, whom he 
defeated, drove back across the river and 
shelled them out of their works on the oppo- 
site side. 

In the war legislation that was now brought 
forward in Congress, Mr. Davis' military 
education enabled him to take a conspicuous 

[38] 



First Appearance in Politics 

part. His first speech seems to have left 
no doubt in the minds of the best judges 
that henceforward he was a power to be reck- 
oned with. John Quincy Adams, it is said, 
paid the closest attention to this maiden effort, 
and at its conclusion shouted into the ear 
trumpet of old Joshua Giddings : " Mark my 
words, sir; we shall hear more of that young 
man ! " But this speech, which was a reply 
to an attack made by Mr. Sawyer, of Ohio, 
on West Point, did something more than win 
the admiration of Mr. Adams. Contending 
for the necessity of a military education for 
those who conduct the operations of war, and 
ignorant that any member of either avocation 
was present, he asked Mr. Sawyer if he 
thought the results at Matamoras could have 
been achieved by a tailor or a blacksmith. Mr. 
Sawyer good-naturedly replied that, while 
he would not admit that some members of his 
craft might not have rivaled the exploits of 

[39] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

General Taylor, that when it came to reduc- 
ing things he himself preferred a horse shoe 
to a fort any day. Andrew Johnson, however, 
took the matter as a personal insult, and as 
long as he lived cherished the bitterest hatred 
for Mr. Davis. 



[40] 



Enters Mexican 
War 



But as promising as Mr. Davis' congres- 
sional career began, it did not long continue. 
Soon after war was declared, he received 
notice of his election as colonel of the First 
Mississippi Eegiment, and early in June re- 
signed his seat in Congress and accepted that 
office. President Polk, learning of his resigna- 
tion, sent for Mr. Davis and offered him an 
appointment as brigadier-general. There is 
no doubt that he greatly coveted that office, 
but such, even at that time, was his attachment 
to the doctrine of state rights, that, frankly in- 
forming the President of his conviction that 
such appointments were the prerogatives of 
the states, he declined the offer. Hastening to 
New Orleans, Colonel Davis joined his regi- 
ment, and at once inaugurated that course of 

[41] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

training and discipline which, in a few 
months, made of it a model of efficiency. 

In August he joined General Taylor's army 
just as it moved forward into Mexico. On 
Sept. 19, 1846, General Taylor with six thou- 
sand men reached the strongly-fortified city 
of Monterey, garrisoned by ten thousand 
Mexican regulars under command of the able 
and experienced General Ampudia. Two 
days later the attack began, and at the close 
of a sharp artillery duel, General Taylor gave 
the order to carry the city by storm. The 
Fourth Artillery, leading the advance, was 
caught in a terrific cross fire, and was speedily 
repulsed with heavy losses, producing the 
utmost confusion along the front of the as- 
saulting brigade. The strong fort, Taneira, 
which had contributed most to the repulse, 
now ran up a new flag, and amidst the wild 
cheering of its defenders redoubled its fire 
of grape, canister and musketry, under which 

[42] 



Enters Mexican War 

the American lines wavered and were about 
to break. 

Colonel Davis, seeing the crisis, without 
waiting for orders, placed himself at the 
head of his Mississippians, and gave the 
order to charge. With prolonged cheers his 
regiment swept forward through a storm of 
bullets and bursting shells. Colonel Davis, 
sword in hand, cleared the ditch at one bound, 
and cheering his soldiers on, they mounted the 
works with the impetuosity of a whirlwind, 
capturing artillery and driving the Mexicans 
pell mell back into the stone fort in the rear. 

In vain the defeated Mexicans sought to bar- 
ricade the gate; Davis and McClung burst it 
open, and leading their men into the fort, com- 
pelled its surrender at discretion. Taneira 
was the key of the situation, and its capture 
insured victory. On the morning of the twen- 
ty-third, Henderson's Texas Rangers, Camp- 
bell's Tennesseeans and Davis' Mississippians 

[43] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

the latter again leading the assault, stormed 
and captured El Diabolo, and the next day 
General Ampudia surrendered the city. 



[44] 



VI. The Hero of Buena 
Vista 



Two months later, General Taylor again 
moved forward toward the City of Mexico, 
and on February 20 was before Saltilo. Santa 
Anna, the ablest of the Mexican generals, 
with the best army in the republic, numbering 
twenty thousand men, there appeared in front. 
Taylor could barely muster a fourth of that 
number, and for strategic purposes fell back 
to the narrow defile in front of the hacienda 
of Buena Yista, where, on the twenty-third, V 
was fought the greatest battle of the war. 

The conflict began early in the morning, and x 
raged with varying fortunes over a line two 
miles long, until the middle of the afternoon 
when the furious roar of musketry from that 
quarter apprised General Wool that Santa 
Anna was making a desperate effort to break 
[45] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

the American center. Colonel Davis was im- 
mediately ordered to support that point, and 
the Mississippians went forward at a double 
quick. As they came upon the field, the wildest 
disorder prevailed, and only Colonel Bowies' 
Indiana regiment held its ground. After try- 
ing in vain to rally the fugitives of a routed 
regiment, Colonel Davis speedily formed his 
own into line of battle and rapidly pushed 
forward across a deep ravine to the right of 
the Indianians just in time to meet the shock 
of a whole brigade, which the two commanders 
succeeded in repulsing with great gallantry. 
But the battle was not over. Under cover 
of the smoke, Santa Anna's full brigade of 
lancers flanked the Americans, and now at the 
sound of their trumpets, the Mexican infantry 
advanced once more to the charge. Thus as- 
sailed on two sides by overwhelming numbers, 
the situation was truly critical, but Colonel 
Davis, forming the two regiments into the 

[46] 



The Hero of Buena Vista 

shape of a re-entering angle, awaited the as- 
sault. 

With flying banners and sounding trum- 
pets the gailey caparisoned lancers came 
down at a thundering gallop until a sheet of 
flame from the angle wrapped their front 
ranks and bore it down to destruction. 
Quickly recovering, the survivors, with the 
fury of madmen, threw themselves again and 
again upon those stubborn ranks, which, now 
assailed on two sides, refused to give an inch, 
and met every onslaught with a withering fire, 
which soon so cumbered the ground with the 
dead that it was with difficulty the living could 
move over it. 

At last utterly demoralized by the awful 
carnage, the Mexican lines broke and fled from 
the field. The day was over. Buena Vista 
was won, and Colonel Davis had accomplished 
a feat which, when Sir Colin Campbell imi- 
tated it at Inkerman two years later, he was 

[47] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

sent by England to retrieve her fallen fortunes 
in India. 

Notwithstanding the fact that Colonel Da- 
vis' right foot had been shattered early in the 
morning, he had refused to leave the field for 
aid, but now at the close of the action he fell 
fainting from his horse. The wound was a 
dangerous one, and as the surgeons were of 
the opinion that more than a year must elapse 
before he could hope to walk, as soon as he 
was able to travel, General Taylor insisted on 
his going home, and thus closed his career in 
the Mexican War. 



[48] 



VII. Enters the 
Senate 



This exploit at Buena Vista created the 
profoundest enthusiasm throughout the coun- 
try, and the Legislatures of several states 
passed resolutions thanking him for his serv- 
ices. Governor Brown of his own state, in 
obedience to an overwhelming popular senti- 
ment, a few weeks after his return, appointed 
Colonel Davis to fill a vacancy that had oc- 
curred in the Senate — an appointment which 
was speedily ratified by the Legislature. 

When, in 1847, Mr. Davis took his seat in 
the Senate, that irrepressible conflict, inevi- 
table from the hour that the Constitutional 
Convention of 1787 sanctioned slavery as an 
institution within the United States, had 
reached a crisis which was threatening the 
very existence of the Union. The Missouri 

[49] 



The Beat Jefferson Davis 

Compromise prohibiting slavery north of 36° 
30' had failed to sanction it in express terms 
south of that parallel, and while in 1820 
probably no one would have denied that this 
was the logical and obvious meaning of that 
measure, such was not the case thirty years 
later. The Abolitionists had opposed the an- 
nexation of Texas, believing, as Mr. Adams 
declared, that such an event would justify the 
dissolution of the Union. 

In finally accepting Texas with bad grace, 
they served notice that it was their last con- 
cession. Therefore when the application of 
the Missouri Compromise to the vast territory 
acquired from Mexico would have given over 
a large portion of it to slavery, they brought 
forward the Wilmot Proviso, a measure, the 
effect of which was to abrogate the Missouri 
Compromise in so far as it affected slavery 
south of that line, while leaving its prohibition 
as to the north side in full force. 

[50] 




Jefferson Davis as United States Senator in 1847 



Enters the Senate 

Mr. Davis participated in the discussion of 
these questions and at once became the ablest 
and most consistent of those statesmen who, 
contending for the strict construction of the 
Constitution and the broadest principles of 
state sovereignty, sought to prevent Congress 
from violating the one by infringing on the 
prerogatives of the other. Holding that the 
Constitution sanctioned slavery, that Congress 
had specified its limits, that the territories be- 
longed in common to the states, he contended | 
that the South could not accept with honor 
anything less than that the Missouri Compro-! 
mise extended to the Pacific Ocean. I 

Eeasoning from these premises, his speeches 
were masterpieces of logic, and whatever one 
may think of their philosophy, all must 
agree that they were among the greatest 
ever delivered in any deliberative body. 
Had the leaders of his party stood with him 
in that great battle, they would have been 

[51] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

able to force some definite legislation which 
would have postponed the Civil War for 
many years — possibly beyond a period when 
the operation of economic laws might have 
effected the abolition of slavery as the only 
salvation of the South — but Henry Clay's 
dread of a situation that endangered the 
Union prompted him to bring forward his 
last compromise measures, which he himself 
declared to be only a temporary expedient. 
Calhoun, equally strong in his love for the 
Union, anxious to preserve it at all costs, aban- 
doned his former position, and against the 
warnings of Jefferson Davis, soon to become 
prophetic, his party accepted the measure 
which, as he declared, guaranteed no right 
that did not already exist, while abrogating 
to the South the benefits of the Compromise 
of 1820. 



[52] 



VIII. Becomes Secre- 
tary of War 



With temporary tranquillity restored, Mr. 
Davis soon afterward resigned his seat in the 
Senate to become a candidate for governor of 
his state — a contest in which he was de- 
feated by a small plurality. He retired once 
more to Briarfield, and there is little doubt 
that he at that time intended to abandon public 
life. However, in 1853, he yielded to the in- 
sistence of President Pierce, and reluctantly 
accepted the portfolio of war in his cabinet. 

Only a brief summary is possible, but if we 
may judge by the reforms inaugurated, the 
work accomplished during the four following 
years, Jefferson Davis must be considered one 
of our greatest secretaries of war. The anti- 
quated army regulations were revised and 
placed upon a modern basis, the medical corps 

[53] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

was reorganized and made more efficient, tac- 
tics were modernized, the rifled musket and 
the minie ball were adopted, the army was 
increased and at every session he persistently 
urged upon Congress the wisdom of a pension 
system and a law for the retirement of officers, 
substantially as they exist at present. 

But more enduring and farther reaching in 
beneficent results were those great public works 
originated or completed under his administra- 
tion, prominently among which may be men- 
tioned the magnificent aqueduct which still 
supplies Washington with an abundance of 
pure water ; the completion of the work on the 
Capitol, which had dragged for years ; and the 
founding of the Smithsonian Institute, of 
which he was, perhaps, the most zealous advo- 
cate and efficient regent. 

Transcontinental railways appealed to him 
as a public necessity. He therefore had two 
surveys made and collected the facts concerning 

[54] 



Becomes Secretary of War 

climate, topography and the natural resources 
of the country, which demonstrated the feasi- 
bility of the vast undertaking, which was sub- 
sequently completed along the lines and ac- 
cording to the plans that he recommended. 

From his induction into office he set at 
naught the spoils system of Jackson, and 
may very justly be regarded as a pioneer of 
civil service reform, for he altogether disre- 
garded politics in his appointments, and when 
remonstrated with by the leaders of his party, 
informed them that he was not appointing 
Whigs or Democrats, but servants of the gov- 
ernment who, in his opinion, were best quali- 
fied for the duties to be performed. The same 
principle he adhered to in matters of the great- 
est moment, as he demonstrated in the Kansas 
troubles. A state of civil war prevailed be- 
tween the advocates and opponents of slavery, 
and it could not be doubted where his own sym- 
pathies were in the controversy. From the na- 

[55] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

ture of the case, the commander of federal 
troops in Kansas must be armed with prac- 
tically dictatory powers. The selection re- 
f 
mained altogether with himself, and he sent 

thither Colonel Sumner, an avowed abolition- 
ist, but an officer whose honor, ability and 
judgment recommended him as the best man 
for the difficult duty. 

How the absurd story ever originated that 
Mr. Davis used the power of his great office 
to weaken the North and prepare the South 
for warlike operations, is inconceivable to the 

, honest investigator of even ordinary diligence. 

; No arms or munitions of war could have been 
removed from one arsenal to another or from 
factory to fort without an order from the Sec- 
retary of War. Those orders are still on 
record, and not one of them lends color to a 
theory which seems to have been adopted as 
a fact by Dr. Draper, upon no better proof 
than that afforded by heresay evidence of the 
[66] 




Jefferson Davis as Secretary of "War 



Becomes Secretary of War 

most biased kind. In fact, arsenals in the 
South were continuously drawn upon to sup- 
ply the Western forts during his term of office, 
and at its close, while all defenses and stores 
were in better condition than ever before, 
those south of the Potomac were relatively 
weaker than in 1853. 

Other less serious charges are equally base- 
less, and the historian who would try Mr. 
Davis upon the common rules of evidence must 
conclude that his administration was not only 
free from dishonor but was characterized by 
high ability and unquestioned patriotism — a 
verdict strengthened by the fact that contem- 
poraneous partisan criticism furnished nothing 
to question such a conclusion. 



[57] 



IX. He Re-enters the 
Senate 



When, in 1857, Mr. Davis was again 
elected to the Senate, the Compromise of 
1850 had already become a dead letter, as he 
had predicted that it wonld. The anti-slavery 
sentiment had, like Aaron's rod, swallowed all 
rivals, and party leaders once noted for con- 
servatism, had resolved to suppress the curse, 
despite the decision of the Supreme Court stat- 
ute, of law, of even the Constitution itself. 
Those who have criticised Mr. Davis most bit- 
terly for his attitude at that time have failed 
to appreciate the fact that he then occupied 
the exact ground where he had always stood. 

Others had changed. He had remained con- 
sistent. He had never countenanced the doc- 
trine of nullification; he had always affirmed 
the right of secession. Profoundly versed, as 

[59] 



The Beat Jefferson Davis 

he was, in the constitutional law of the United 
States, familiar with every phase of the ques- 
tion debated by the Convention of 1787, his 
logical mind was unable to reach a conclusion 
adverse to the right of a sovereign state to 
withdraw from a voluntary compact, the vio- 
lation of which endangered its interests. He 
believed that the compact was violated by the 
\ repeal of the Missouri Compromise; he felt 
that it was being violated now, but as in 1850 
he had declared that nothing short of the ne- 
cessity of self -protection would justify the dis- 
solution of the Union, he now pleaded with the 
majority not to force that necessity upon the 
South. Secession he frankly declared to be a 
great evil, so great that the South would only 
adopt it as the last resort; but at the same 
time he warned the abolitionists that if the 
guarantees of the Constitution were not re- 
spected, that if the Northern states were to 
defy the decrees of the Supreme Court favor- 

[60] 



He Re-enters the Senate 

able to the South, as they had done in the 
Dred Scott decision, that if his section was 
to be ruled by a hostile majority without re- 
gard to the right, the protection thrown 
around the minority by the fundamental law 
of the land, that the Southern states could not 
in honor remain members of the Union, and 
would therefore certainly withdraw from it. 
He undoubtedly saw the chasm daily growing 
wider, and had he possessed that sagacious 
foresight, that profound knowledge of human 
nature, in which alone he was lacking as a 
statesman of the first order, he would have 
realized then, as Abraham Lincoln had before, 
that the die was cast and that the Union 
could not longer endure upon the compromise? 
of the Constitution which had implanted slav- 
ery among a free, self-governing people, a 
majority of whom were opposed to it. But 
there is no recorded utterance of Jefferson 
Davis, no act of his, that would lead one to 

[61] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

believe that he had despaired of some adjust- 
ment of matters, or that secession was wise or 
desirable, until after the nomination of Mr. 
Lincoln. Then, for the first time, he declared 
before a state convention at Jackson, Miss., 
that the Chicago platform would justify the 
South in dissolving the Union if the Bepub- 
lican party should triumph at the coming elec- 
tion. But he did not expect that triumph. 
Shortly previous to that speech, he had intro- 
duced resolutions in the Senate embodying the 
principles of the constitutional pro-slavery 
party. 

They affirmed the sovereignty of the sepa- 
rate states, asserted that slavery formed an 
essential part of the political institutions 
of various members of the Union, that the 
union of the states rested upon equality of 
rights, that it was the duty of Congress to 
protect slave property in the territories, and 
that a territory when forming a constitution, 

[62] 



He Re-enters the Senate 

and not before, must either sanction or abolish 
slavery. The resolution passed the Senate, 
and Mr. Davis hoped to see it become the plat- 
form of a reunited party, which would have 
meant the defeat of the Republican ticket and 
a consequent postponement of the war. 

The foregoing facts alone make ridicu- 
lous the assertions of Mr. Pollard that 
during this Congress Jefferson Davis, with 
thirteen other senators, met one night in a 
room at the Capitol, and perfected a plan 
whereby the Southern states were forced into 
secession against the will of the people thereof. 

What the plan was, how it was put into oper- 
ation so as to circumvent the will of the peo- 
ple of eleven states who more than a year later 
decided the question of secession by popular 
vote, why Mr. Davis later introduced the 
above resolution and why he worked so zeal- 
ously thereafter to prevent the threatened dis- 
ruption and why he sought to induce the 

[63] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

Charleston Convention to adopt his resolution 
as the principles of the party, Mr. Pollard 
does not attempt to explain. In fact, any ra- 
tional explanation would be impossible, for at 
every point the evidence refutes the allegation. 
Then, again, those who, like Mr. Pollard, 
have sought to saddle the chief responsibility 
of secession upon Jefferson Davis have over- 
looked the fact that while not an avowed can- 
didate, he nevertheless hoped to be the nominee 
of his party in 1860 for the presidency, and 
N that much of his strength lay in Northern 
states, as Massachusetts demonstrated by send- 
ing him a solid delegation to the Charleston 
Convention. His conduct during his last year 
in the Senate is consistent with this ambition, 
but the ambition is wholly inconsistent with the 
theory that he had long planned the destruction 
of the Union. The truth is that the impartial 
historian must conclude from all of his utter- 
ances, from his acts, from the circumstances 

[64] 



He Re-enters the Senate 

of the case, that in so far from being t 
genius and advocate of disunion, he depre- 
cated it and sought to prevent it, until politi- 
cal events rendered certain the election of Mr. 
Lincoln. Then, sincerely believing the peculiar S 
institutions of the South to be imperiled, and 
never doubting the right of secession, he ad- 
vocated it as the only remedy left for a situa- 
tion which had become intolerable to the peo- 
ple of his section. 

His advocacy, however, was in striking 
contrast to that of many of his colleagues. 
Always free from any suggestion of dema- 
goguery, always conservative, his utterances 
on this subject were marked with candor 
and moderation. Nor did the ominous shad- 
ows that descended upon the next Congress 
disturb his equanimity or unsettle his reso- 
lution to perform his duty as he saw it. 
For days the impassioned storm of invec- 
tive and denunciation raged around him, but 

[65] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

he remained silent. At last the news came 
that his state had seceded. He announced the 
event to the Senate in a speech, which in no- 
bility of conception has probably never been 
surpassed. He denned his own position and 
that of his state, and as he bade farewell to 
his colleagues, even among his bitterest op- 
ponents there was scarcely an eye undimmed 
with tears, and whatever others thought in 
after years, there was no one in that august 
assemblage who did not accord to Jefferson 
Davis the meed of perfect sincerity and un- 
blemished faith in the cause which he had 
espoused. 



[66] 



Still Hoped to Save 
the Union 



On the evening of the day Mr. Davis re- 
tired from the Senate, he was visited by Eob- 
ert Toombs of Georgia, who informed him 
that it was reported from a trustworthy source 
that certain representatives, including them- 
selves, were to be arrested. He had intended 
to leave the capital the following day, but 
changed his plans to await any action the gov- 
ernment might take against him. 

To his friends he declared the hope that the 
rumor might be well founded, for should ar- 
rests be made, he saw therein the opportunity 
to bring the question of the right of a state 
to secede from the Union before the Supreme 
Court for final adjudication. Nothing of the 
kind happened, and after waiting for about, 
ten days, Mr. Davis left Washington. 

[67] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

During his stay he freely discussed the sit- 
uation with the leading Southern statesmen 
who called upon him. The general opinion 
was the first result of secession, which most 
of them assumed to be final, must be the 
formation of a new federal government, and 
the consensus of opinion designated Mr. 
Davis as the fittest person for the presi- 
dency. On the first proposition he did 
not agree with his colleagues. He expressed 
the belief that the action of the states 
in exercising the right of secession would 
serve to so sober Northern sentiment that an 
adjustment might be reached, which, while 
guaranteeing to the South all of the rights 
vouchsafed by the Constitution, would still 
. preserve the Union. He therefore sought to 
impress upon them — especially the South 
Carolina delegation — the necessity of mod- 
eration, the unwisdom of any act at that time 
' which might render an adjustment impossible. 

[68] 



Still Hoped to Save the Union 

The second proposition he refused to con- 
sider at all, and begged those who might be in- 
strumental in the formation of a new govern- 
ment, if one must be created, not to use his 
name in connection with its presidency. That 
he at this time entertained a sincere desire for 
the preservation of the Union can be doubted 
by no one familiar with his private corre- 
spondence. In a letter dated two days after 
his resignation from the Senate he defends 
the action of his state, it is true, but at the 
same time deplores disunion as one of the 
greatest calamities that could befall the South. 

In another letter written three days later, he 
uses this significant language : " All is not lost.\ 
If only moderation prevails, if they will only 
give me time, I am not without hope of a 
peaceable settlement that will assure our rights 
within the Union." That he did not abandon 
that hope until long afterward, that he clung 
to it long after it became a delusion, is very 
probable, as we shall see. 

[69] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

Nothing could be farther from the truth 
than the theory so often advanced that presi- 
dential ambition was responsible for Mr. 
Davis' attitude on the question of secession. 
This I have indicated in the last chapter. The 
truth of this position is established if he were 
sincere in his declarations that he did not 
covet the honor of the presidency of the new 
government. Those declarations were made 
to the men who, of all others, could further 
his ambition; they knew his stubbornness of 
opinion, understood how likely it was that he 
would never abandon that or any other posi- 
tion; there were other aspirants whom he 
knew to be personally more acceptable to a 
majority of these statesmen, and his attitude, 
of course, released them from any responsi- 
bility imposed by popular sentiment in his 
favor in the South. If one is still inclined 
to accept all this, however, as another instance 
of Csesar putting the crown aside, the question 

[70] 



Still Hoped to Save the Union 

arises, Why did he assume the same attitude 
with those who possessed no power to influence 
his fortunes ? Why in his letters to his wife, 
to his brother, to his friends, in private life, 
did he express the strongest repugnance to ac- 
cepting that office should it be created and 
offered? But even stronger evidence that he 
did not seek or want it is afforded by another 
circumstance. Mississippi, in seceding from 
the Union, had provided for an army. The 
governor had appointed him to command it, 
with the rank of major-general. In the event 
of war, that position opened up unlimited pos- 
sibilities in the field, which was exactly what 
he desired; for, unfortunately, he then and 
always cherished the delusion that he was 
greater as a soldier than he was as a states- 
man. All of this is consistent with his sin- 
cerity — inconsistent with any other reason- 
able theory. 

Mr. Davis must also be acquitted of the 

[71] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

charge made by no inconsiderable number of 
the Southern people that he first failed to 
anticipate war and later underestimated the 
extent and duration of the approaching con- 
flict. On his way from Washington to Mis- 
sissippi, he made several speeches. All of 
them were marked by moderation, but to the 
prominent citizens who on that journey came 
tc confer with him, he declared in emphatic 
terms that the United States would never al- 
low the seceded states to peacefully withdraw 
from the Union, and warned them that un- 
less some adjustment were effected, they must 
expect a civil war, the extent, duration and 
termination of which no one could foresee. 
At Jackson he reiterated those views, along 
with a hope for reconciliation, in a speech de- 
livered before the governor and Legislature of 
his state. Peaceful adjustment he declared 
not beyond hope, yet if war should come, he 
warned them that it must be a long one, and 

[72] 



Still Hoped to Save the Union 

that instead of buying 75,000 stands of small 
arms, as proposed, that the state should only- 
limit the quantity by its capacity to pay. 
Those views, it may be here remarked, were 
not coincided with by his own state or the 
people of the South generally. They were far 
in advance of their representatives on the ques- 
tion of secession, but the belief was generally 
prevalent at even a much later date that no 
attempt would be made to coerce a seceding 
state. 



[73] 



XI. President of the 
Confederacy 



The convention of the seceding states met 
at Montgomery, Feb. 4, 1861, and proceeded 
to adopt a constitution as the basis for a pro- 
visional government. The work was the most 
rapid in the history of legislative proceedings, 
being completed in three days. With the ex- 
ceptions of making the preamble read that 
each state accepting it did so in " its sovereign 
and independent capacity," fixing the presi- 
dent's and vice-president's term of office at six 
years and making them ineligible for re-elec- 
tion, prohibiting a protective tariff, inhibiting 
the general government from making appro- 
priations for internal improvements, requiring 
a two-thirds vote to pass appropriation bills 
and giving cabinet officers a seat, but no vote, 
in Congress, the Confederate constitution was, 
practically, a reaffirmation of that of the 
United States. 

[75] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

It was adopted on the eighth, and the provi- 
sional government to continue in force one 
year, unless sooner superseded by a perma- 
nent organization, was formally launched upon 
the troubled waters of its brief and stormy ex- 
istence. The following day, an election was 
held for president and vice-president, the con- 
vention voting by states, which resulted on the 
first ballot in the selection by a bare majority 
of Jefferson Davis and Alexander H. Stephens 
of Georgia. Mr. Davis, as we have seen, was 
not a candidate. He was not in, nor near, 
Montgomery at the time, and took no part, by 
advice or otherwise, in the formation of the 
new constitution. 

His selection over Mr. Toombs was the re- 
sult of a single set of circumstances. Mr. 
Davis' military education, his experience in 
the field, his services as secretary of war, a 
widespread popular belief in his ability as a 
military organizer, and his known capacity as 

[76] 



President of the Confederacy 

a statesman in times of peace, all marked him 
as the fittest man for a place which evidently 
required a combination of high qualities. Had 
Mr. Toombs possessed either military educa- 
tion or experience, there is scarcely a doubt 
that he would have been chosen. 

The news of his election reached Mr. Davis 
while working in his garden, and is said to 
have caused him genuine disappointment and 
grief. That the convention was uncertain of 
his acceptance is indicated by the fact that 
with the notification was sent an earnest ap- 
peal to consider the public welfare, rather than 
his own preferences, in considering the offer 
of the presidency. Upon this ground he based 
his action in accepting the office and hastening 
to Jackson, he resigned his position in the state 
army, expressing the hope and belief that the 
service would be but temporary. 

All along the route to Montgomery, bands 
and bonfires, booming cannon and the peals of 
[77] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

bells heralded his approach, and vast con- 
courses greeted him at every station. 

What purported to be an account of this 
journey was printed in the leading papers of 
the North, which pictured Mr. Davis as invok- 
ing war, breathing defiance and threatening 
extermination of the Union. Nothing of the 
kind, however, occurred. The speeches act- 
ually delivered were moderate, conservative 
and conciliatory. So much so, in fact, that 
they were disappointing to his enthusiastic audi- 
ences, and there are yet living many witnesses 
to the frequent and repeated declaration of 
the fear that " Jeff. Davis has remained 
too long amongst the Yankees to make him 
exactly the kind of president the South needs." 



[78] 



XII. His First 
Inaugural 



Monday, Feb. 18, 1861, there assembled 
around the state capitol at Montgomery such 
an audience as no state had ever witnessed — 
as perhaps none ever will witness. Statesmen, 
actual and prospective; jurists and senators; 
soldiers and sailors; officers and office-seekers, 
the latter, no doubt, predominating; clerks, 
farmers and artisans; fashionably attired 
women in fine equipages decorated with 
streamers and the tri-colored cockades; foreign 
correspondents — in fact, representatives from 
every sphere and condition of life, each eager 
to witness a ceremonial which could never oc- 
cur again. 

At exactly one o'clock Mr. Davis and Mr. 
Stephens appeared upon the platform in front 
of the capitol, and when the mighty wave of 

[79] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

applause had subsided, Howell Cobb, President 
of the Constitutional Convention, administered 
to them the oath of office. Then in that pe- 
culiarly musical voice which had never failed 
to charm the Senate in other days, a voice au- 
dible in its minutest inflections to every one 
of the vast throng, Mr. Davis delivered his 
inaugural address. 

Strangely enough, both sections of the divided 
country then and thereafter attached a widely 
varying value to the address. It was so sim- 
ple, clear and direct that it is amazing two in- 
terpretations should have been placed upon it. 
As an exposition of the causes leading to se- 
cession, it was a masterpiece. It is impossible 
to read it today without feeling that in every 
sentence it breathed a prayer for peace. 

Viewed in connection with the events that 
produced it, as the first official advice of the 
chief executive of a new nation beset with the 
most stupendous problems, confronted by the 

[80] 



His First Inaugural 

gravest perils, it certainly added nothing to 
Mr. Davis' reputation as a statesman. Beyond 
the declaration that the Confederacy would be 
maintained, a desire for peace and freest of 
trade relations with the United States, he out- 
lined no policies and offered neither sugges- 
tions nor advice. 

Mr. Davis, now more than perhaps any other 
Southern statesman, should have realized that 
" the erring sisters " would not be permitted to 
depart in peace, and yet beyond the barest 
general statement that an army and a navy 
must be created, he dismissed the matter, to 
plunge into an academic discussion of the pros- 
perity of the South and the moral sin that 
would be committed by the United States 
should it perversely and wickedly disturb this 
condition and curtail the world's supply of 
cotton ! 

The question of revenue was, of course, of 
paramount importance, but no idea, no plan, 

[81] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

no suggestion was offered along that line. The 
more one studies that remarkable production, 
the more puzzling it becomes, if we assume 
that Mr. Davis was altogether sincere in his 
declaration that the severance was final and 
irremediable. 

If he were not, if he still hoped for some 
adjustment that would reunite the severed 
union, one may readily understand why 
he refrained from assuming the vigorous at- 
titude that the occasion demanded, but which 
might have placed compromise beyond the 
pale of possibility. The significant omissions 
were not compatible with Mr. Davis' well- 
known views of official duty. Nor is the mat- 
ter in any way explained by assuming that 
as Congress was charged with the performance 
of all of these important matters, that it was 
not Mr. Davis' duty to suggest plans and 
methods. His office invested him with those 
powers and he was elected to it for the ex- 
press reason that he was supposed to be emi- 

[82] 



His First Inaugural 

nently qualified in all practical administrative 
and legislative details, especially those of a 
military nature. 

While Mr. Davis must be absolved from the 
charge that his cabinet appointments were the 
result of favoritism, they were, nevertheless, 
for the most part, unfortunate. The portfolio 
of the treasury, undoubtedly the most impor- 
tant place in the cabinet, was intrusted to Mr. 
Memminger, of South Carolina, an incorrupt- 
ible gentleman of high principles and medi- 
ocre ability, a theorist, devoid of either the 
talents or experience that would have fitted 
him for the difficult place. Toombs, Ben- 
jamin and Reagan were better selections. The 
others were men honest, sincere of purpose, 
but little in their antecedents to recommend 
them for the particular positions which they 
were called upon to fill. With at least two of 
them, Mr. Davis was not previously personally 
acquainted, and political considerations prob- 
ably secured their appointment. 

[83] 



XIII. Delays and 
Blunders 



One of the president's first official acts was 
to appoint Crawford, Forsyth and Eoman as 
commissioners "to negotiate friendly rela- 
tions" with the United States. They were 
men of different political affiliations, one be- 
ing a Douglas Democrat, one a Whig and the 
other a lukewarm secessionist. All were con- 
servative and shared fully in the president's 
desire for peace on any honorable terms. 

But while trying to secure peace, Mr. Davis 
was not insensible to the necessity of an army, 
and on this point the first difference arose be- 1 
tween him and Congress. Beyond the small 
and inefficient militia maintained by the differ- 
ent states, the-e was neither army nor guns, 
and ammunition with which to equip one. He 
therefore urged Congress to provide for the 

[85] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

purchase of large quantities of warlike mate- 
rial, but that, body, infatuated with the idea 
that there would be no war, proceeded to de- 
bate whether it were advisable to add anything 
to the stock owned by the states, which at that 
time was insufficient to arm one-thirtieth of 
the population subject to military duty. 

Mr. Toombs once assured the writer that 
■after the loss of valuable time it was decided 
to send an agent abroad, it was proposed to 
purchase but eight thousand Enfield rifles and 
that it was with the utmost difficulty that he 
prevailed upon the government to increase the 
order to ten thousand. 

From this circumstance the extent of the 
infatuation may be inferred. The peace de- 
lusions of Congress seem to have been fully 
shared by the secretary of the treasury. 

At the time of the inauguration of the 
Confederate government and for months there- 
after, merchants and banks of the South held 

[86] 



Delays and Blunders 

quantities of gold, silver and foreign exchange 
which they were anxious to sell at very nearly 
par for government securities, and yet this 
opportunity was neglected. But as grave as 
that blunder was, it was, nevertheless, insig- 
nificant when compared to another. There 
were then in the South about three million 
bales of cotton which the owners would have 
sold for ten cents a pound in Confederate 
money. 

The president accordingly suggested to 
Mr. Memminger that the government buy this 
cotton, immediately ship it to Europe and 
there store it to await developments. His 
theory was that if war should come, it must 
be a long one and that in less than two years 
this cotton would be worth from seventy to 
eighty cents a pound, which would then give 
the government assets, convertible at any time 
into gold, of at least a billion dollars. The j 
plan was sound and feasible, for a blockade J 

[87] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

did not become seriously effective until more 
than a year after the beginning of war, and 
we know the price of cotton went even beyond 
Mr. Davis' figures. The secretary, however, 
engrossed in the puerile plans of fiat money, 
which the history of almost any revolution, 
from the days of Adam, should have proved a 
warning, turned a deaf ear to this suggestion 
which at once combined profound statesman- 
ship and admirable financial sagacity, and the 
L matter came to naught. 

But this was only one of the many serious 
blunders and lapses which retarded the ade- 
quate preparation which all at a later day rec- 
ognized should have been made by the Confed- 
eracy. 

When the stern logic of events portrayed 
this neglect as the parent of failure, the 
spirit of criticism emerged even in the South 
and failed not to spare Mr. Davis. But these 
critics have, for the most part, overlooked the 

[88] 



Delays and Blunders 

very important fact that it was impossible for 
the president to accomplish a great deal with- 
out the co-operation of his Congress. 

The states' rights ideas, we must remember, 
were the predominant ones entertained by the 
people and their representatives, and that they, 
more than anything else, paralyzed action, pro- 
moted delays and fostered confusion, can ad- 
mit of no doubt. The forts, arsenals, docks \ 
and shipyards belonged to the states, and al- 
though Mr. Davis early in his administration 
urged that they be ceded to the general govern-/ 
ment, it was not until war became a certainty 
that a reluctant consent was yielded and this 
most necessary step consummated. Another, 
weakness lay in the fact that the provisional 
army, in so far as one existed, was formed on 
the states' rights plan. 

That is to say, it was composed of vol- 
unteers, armed and officered by the states,] 
who alone possessed power over them. Any| 

[89] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

governor might at any time without any 
reason withdraw the troops of his state 
from the most important point at the most 
critical moment, without .being answerable to 
|any power for his action. These are but two 
examples of many that might be adduced, but 
they will serve to demonstrate how impossible 
it was for any man, whatever his influence or 
position, to make the preparations demanded 
by the situation while hedged about by such 
fatal limitations. And, whatever Mr. Davis' 
failures may have been in this regard, they are 
chargeable to the system adopted by the peo- 
ple themselves, rather than to any serious dere- 
lictions on his part. 



[90] 



XIV. The Bombard- 
ment of Sumter 



The bulk of the Confederate army was 
mobilized at Charleston, where, if hostilities 
were to occur, they were likely to begin, owing 
to the fact that a Federal garrison still held 
Fort Sumter. Mr. Davis, realizing the critical 
nature of this situation, impressed upon the 
peace commissioners that, failing to secure a 
treaty of friendship, they were to exhaust every 
effort to procure the peaceful evacuation of 
Sumter 

The history of those negotiations is too well 
known to need repetition here. Mr. Seward's 
disingenious mctnods served their purpose of 
inspiring a false hope of peace, and it is very 
probable that Mr. Davis suspected no duplicity 
until fully advised of the details and destina- 
tion of the formidable fleet that was being 

[91] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

fitted out at New York. When it sailed, and 
not before, ended his long dream of peace. 

The attempt to reinforce a stronghold in 
the very heart of the Confederacy was express 
and unmistakable notice to the world that the 
United States did not propose to relinquish its 
sovereignty over the seceded states. To allow 
the peaceful consummation of the attempt was 
ta acquiesce in a claim fatal to the existence of 
the new government. Therefore, if the Con- 
federacy was to be anything more than a futile 
attempt to frighten the Federal government 
into granting concessions, the time had now 
come to act. The president did not hesitate. 
General Beauregard was instructed to demand 
the surrender of Sumter, and, failing to re- 
ceive it, to proceed with its reduction. 

The story of that demand and its refusal, 
of how at thirty minutes past four o'clock 
on the morning of April 12, 1861, the quiet 
old city of Charleston was aroused from 

[92] 



The Bombardment of Sumter 

its- slumbers by that first gun from Fort John- 
ston " heard around the world," and how the 
gallant Major Anderson, Mr. Davis' old com- 
rade in arms of other days, maintained his 
position until the walls of the fortifications 
were battered down and fierce fires raged 
within, are all history, and need no further 
comment or elaboration at this time. 

There as at Matanzas in the beginning of the 
war with Spain, the first and only life sacrificed 
was that of a mule. When Mr. Davis learned 
this, he exclaimed : " Thank heaven, nothing 
more precious than the blood of a mule has 
been shed. Reconciliation is not yet impos- 
sible." But he was hardly serious in that 
declaration. The die was now cast, and for 
the first time the North realized that the 
South was in earnest — the South, that war 
was inevitable. 

Mr. Lincoln's call for volunteers to coerce 
the seceding states aroused a perfect frenzy of 

[93] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

patriotism throughout the South, and the full 

military strength of the Confederacy could 

have been enlisted in thirty days, but it is 

hardly necessary to say that a government 

\ which had reluctantly ordered ten thousand 

\ rifles was in no position to take advantage of 

ithat opportunity. 

The president immediately called an extra 
session of Congress. It convened on April 
29, and received his special message, which 
was in marked contrast to his inaugural. 
There were no dissertations on agriculture 
and morality now, but with that forceful 
perspicacity which usually characterized his 
utterances, he marked out sensibly and well 
what should be done, and suggested definite 
methods. This message was the first utterance, 
public or private, which clearly demonstrated 
that his dream of compromise was over. 

His recommendations embraced the crea- 
tion of a regular army upon a sane plan, 

[94] 



The Bombardment of Sumter 

the immediate purchase of arms, ammunition 
and ships, the establishment of gun factories 
and powder mills, and a number of other sub- 
jects, which leave no doubt that he saw the 
situation in its true proportions, and was re- 
solved to use the resources of the Confederacy 
to meet it. That these resources were meager 
when compared with those of his powerful 
adversary, is beyond question. But neither in 
point of wealth nor population were the odds 
so great against the South as those over which 
Napoleon twice triumphed, or those opposed 
to Frederick the Great in a contest from which 
he emerged triumphant; and the conclusion so 
freely indulged in of late years that the Con- 
federacy was foredoomed from the beginning 
would seem to rest rather upon an accom- 
plished fact than upon sound reasoning, if in 
the beginning the resources of the South had 
been used to the best advantage. That they 
were not, was known by every statesman and 

[95] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

general of the Confederacy whose achieve- 
ments entitle his opinion to consideration. Bnt 
it is eminently unfair to seek to saddle all or 
the greater part of this failure upon Mr. 
Davis, as has been attempted, in some cases, 
by the delinquents who themselves, contrib- 
uted largely to that result. Some of the causes 
of that failure we have seen. Another, and 
perhaps the most potent cause, the writer be- 
lieves, may be traced to conditions which have 
been very generally overlooked. 



f'JS 



XV. Conditions in the 
South 



Previous to the Civil War, the large slave- 
holders constituted as distinct an aristocracy 
as ever existed under any monarchy. Edu- 
cated in Northern colleges and the universities 
of Europe, it produced a race of men who in 
many respects has never been surpassed by 
those of any country in the world. It was 
small, but it was the governing class of the 
South, in which the people, except those in 
the more northerly section, placed implicit 
confidence. 

A majority of the latter were not slave- 
holders nor were they in sympathy with 
slavery, and at heart they were unfriendly to 
the governing class, its policies and politics — 
a fact which was responsible for giving to the 
Union from the seceded states almost as many 
soldiers as enlisted for the Confederacy. 

[97] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

The educated class, of course, understood ail 
sections of the country, but at this time it is 
almost impossible to understand how little the 
rank and file of the Southern people knew of 
the North, its resources and, above all, of the 
motives that actuated its citizens. In a word, 
two sections of a country separated by no 
natural barrier, speaking the same language 
and in the main living under the same laws, 
were to all intents and purposes as much 
foreigners as though a vast ocean had divided 
them. 

ISTursed upon the theories of state sov- 
ereignty, the Southern people could not at 
first understand how a seceding state could 
be coerced, and when that delusion was dis- 
pelled, their attitude was one of angry con- 
tempt. From colonial days, conditions in the 
South had been such as to develop courage, re- 
sourcefulness and self-reliance in the individ- 
ual. The idea of coercion was to them ridicu- 

[98] 



Conditions in the Senate 

lous. Numerically inferior as they were, they 
felt self-sufficient. So much so, in fact, that 
they took no trouble to conciliate that class be- 
fore referred to which, while out of sympathy 
with them on slavery, were held by other ties 
which at first inclined them rather to the 
South than to the North. What mattered it? 
Let them join the Yankees, and they would 
whip both. This same confidence saw in the 
approaching conflict a short affair, and among 
this people, naturally as warlike as the Ro- 
mans under the republic, there grew up the 
widespread fear that the war would not last 
long enough for all to take a hand. Valorous 
the attitude undoubtedly was, but at the same 
time the spirit that gave it birth was fatal 
to that careful preparation which alone would 
have insured a chance for success. 

This spirit invaded even the Congress, 
where strong opposition developed to long en- 
listments. In fact, this body seems to have 

[99] 






The Real Jefferson Davis 

seriously believed that the volunteers would be 
sufficient to maintain the struggle, and while 
Mr. Davis saw the error and danger involved 
in both theories, the most that could be se- 
cured was legislation which provided for a 
twelve months' enlistment. This, an all 
truth, was bad enough, but it is doubtful if 
it was so pernicious as the methods provided 
for fixing the rank of officers by the relative 
position formerly held by them in the United 
States army — a measure which from its in- 
ception proved a perfect Pandora's box of dis- 
cord and dissension. 



[100] 



XVI The First Battle 



The next step of Congress was unquestion- 
ably a fatal blunder. This was the removal of 
the capitol from Montgomery to Richmond. 
From the very nature of the situation, it was 
evident that the chief goal of the enemy would 
be the capture of the capital and the moral 
effect of such a result must prove extremely 
disastrous, by elating the North, discouraging 
the South and impairing confidence abroad. 

Left at Montgomery, it would have compelled 
the enemy to operate from a distant base of 
supplies, necessitating his keeping open lines 
of communication eight hundred miles long, 
while it would have liberated to be used as occa- 
sion demanded, a magnificent army which was 
constantly required for the defense of Rich- 
mond. Located as that place is, within little 

[101] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

more than one hundred miles of the enemy's 
base, upon a river which permitted the ascent 
of formidable war crafts and within a short 
distance of a strong fortress on a fine harbor, 
it was a constant invitation for aggressions 
which required all of the energies and most of 
the resources of the South to meet and defend. 
When in May the president reached Rich- 
mond, its defense was already demanding at- 
tention. The states had sent forward troops 
to the aid of Virginia and these were divided 
into three armies. One of these was posted 
at Norfolk. Another, under General Joseph 
E. Johnston, guarded the approach to the 
Shenandoah Valley, and the third, under Gen- 
eral Beauregard, covered the direct approach 
to the capital from near Manassas. The day 
the Federal army moved forward to the inva- 
sion of the South, Mr. Davis was advised of 
the fact by one of his secret agents in Wash- 
ington, and he wired Johnston to abandon 
Harper's Ferry and effect a junction with 

[102] 




Edward Ruffin, who Fired the First Gun at Sumter 



The First Battle 

Beauregard — an order executed with the 
celerity and effectiveness which could not 
have been surpassed by the seasoned troops of 
a veteran army. But a difficulty now arose. 
Johnston and Beauregard were commanding 
separate armies, and in the face of impending 
battle it was certainly necessary to know who 
exercised supreme command. 

Under the law of Congress, it was doubtful 
if either exercised those functions, Johnston 
therefore wired an inquiry and received from 
Mr. Davis only the reply that he was general in 
the Confederate army. However, the anoma- 
lous situation and perhaps another motive, 
which will be hereafter noticed, induced the 
president to hasten forward, so as to be himself 
present upon the field of battle. When he 
reached Johnston's headquarters, the hard- 
fought day was closing, the storm of battle was 
dying away to the westward and General Mc- 
Dowell's army, routed at every point, was re- 
treating in wild disorder toward Washington. 

[103] 



XVII. A Lost Oppor- 
tunity 



~No man influential in the making of his- 
tory ever knew less of the art of divining 
character than Jefferson Davis. Entirely in- 
genons himself, he persisted in attributing 
that virtue to every one else, utterly failing 
to understand the mixed motives that influence 
all men in most of the affairs of life. If he 
perceived one trait of character, real or imag- 
inary, which appealed to his admiration, it 
was quite sufficient, and forthwith he pro- 
ceeded to attribute to its possessor all of the 
other qualities which he wished him to possess. 
That conclusion once reached, no amount of 
evidence could overthrow it or even shake his 
confidence in its correctness. 

That peculiarity, in some ways admirable 
in itself, was responsible for many of his mis- 

[105] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

takes and misfortunes. The first vital one at- 
tributable to that cause was Mr. Davis' selec- 
tion of the head of the commissary department 
of the Confederate army. Early in his mili- 
tary career, while stationed at Fort Crawford, 
a warm friendship had sprung up between 
himself and Lieutenant Northrop. About the 
time he resigned his commission an accident 
befell Northrop which compelled him to re- 
tire from the army also. Thereupon he stud- 
ied medicine and afterward locating in Char- 
leston became a zealous convert to the Catholic 
faith and beyond the spheres of church quar- 
rels and religious polemics, remained an unim- 
portant factor in his community. Indeed he 
seems to have been unable to manage his own 
small affairs with any degree of success, and 
many of his neighbors and friends believed 
him to be of unsound mind. Mr. Davis had 
not seen him, and probably knew little of his 
life since he left the army, a quarter of a 

[106] 




Robert Toombs 



A Lost Opportunity 

century before. A superficial inquiry must 
have demonstrated that Dr. Northrop was 
wholly unfitted by education, temperament 
and experience for a position which required 
business training and executive ability of the 
first order. However, Mr. Davis, remember- 
ing the man as he had supposed him to be 
years before, proceeded to appoint him to the 
most important and difficult position under the 
government. 

Colonel Northrop, of course, had ideas of 
his own and he proceeded to execute them 
without the slightest regard for the wishes or 
opinions of the able and experienced generals 
who commanded the Confederate armies in 
Northern Virginia. 

Near Manassas, where Johnston and Beau- 
regard had been ordered to form a junction, 
a railroad branched off from the main 
line and traversed the famous Shenandoah 
Valley, then and afterward known as the 

[107] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

granary of the South. To have supplied the 
armies with provisions by the use of that 
line whose rolling stock was then compara- 
tively idle would have been one of the easiest 
of military problems; but instead of following 
that course, breadstuffs were transported first 
from the Valley to Richmond and thence over 
the sadly overtaxed main line to the army at 
Manassas. But one result was possible which, 
of course, was the almost complete failure of 
the commissary department. Most of the 
Southern troops went hungry into the battle 
of Bull Run, and not until ten o'clock at night 
could meager rations be procured for the ex- 
hausted army. This fact was the real reason 
why General Johnston did not pursue the 
routed army of McDowell. Johnston, Beau- 
regard and President Davis all concurred in 
the necessity of following up the victory, and 
the latter actually dictated the order to Colo- 
nel Jordan, but as the commissary department 

[108] 



A Lost Opportunity 

had completely gone to pieces, no forward 
movement was possible then, or, indeed, for 
months afterward. 



[109] 




General Joseph E. Johnston 



XVIII. The Quarrel 

with Johnston 



A greater calamity than this, which prac- 
tically nullified the fruits of the victory, soon 
occurred in the beginning of that unnecessary 
and calamitous quarrel between the President 
and General Johnston. Much that is untrue 
has been written about its origin, but the facts 
as learned from the principals themselves, and 
all the records in the case, refer it to a single 
cause which may be stated in few words. 

In March, 1861, the Confederate Congress 
enacted that the relative rank of officers should 
be determined in the new army by that which 
they held in that of the United States. Gen- 
eral Johnston alone of those who resigned 
from the old army held the rank of Brigadier- 
General and therefore, it would seem, should 
have become the senior general in the Confed- 
[lii] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

erate armies. In fact, he was recognized as 
such by the government until after the battle 
of Bull Kun. 

However, on the Fourth of July the Presi- 
dent nominated five generals, three of whom 
took precedence over Johnston, thus reduc- 
ing him from the first general to that of 
fourth, and in August Congress confirmed 
the nominations as made. Upon learning what 
had been done, General Johnston wrote the 
President, protesting against what he conceived 
to be a great injustice. His language was mod- 
erate and respectful, and it is impossible to 
read his argument without acknowledging its 
faultless logic. The President, however, in- 
dorsed upon the document the single word 
" Insubordinate," and sent to the writer a 
curt, caustic note, which without attempting 
any answer or explanation summarily closed 
the matter. That Johnston was deeply 
wounded admits of no doubt, but he was too 

[112] 




Generals Lee, Jackson and Johnston 



The Quarrel with Johnston 

great a soldier and man to allow this snub to 
influence his devotion and service, and his at- 
titude toward the President remained through- 
out the struggle eminently correct. Mr. Davis 
however, was never able to understand those 
who differed from his views. General John- 
ston often did so; wisely as the sequel al- 
ways proved, but the President invariably at- 
tributed this difference to the wrong cause. 
The breach was thereby kept open and with 
what results we shall see. 

The most important result of the victory of 
Bull Run was the tremendous enthusiasm that 
it stirred throughout the South. Volunteers 
came forward so rapidly that they could not 
be armed and the belief became general that 
it was to be " a ninety days' war." President 
Davis, however, nursed no such delusions. He 
knew the temper of the great and populous 
states of the North, and he fully realized that 
defeat would teach caution while arousing 

[113] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

stronger determination. He, therefore, sought 
to impress upon Congress the necessity of stop- 
ping short enlistments and the advisability of 
passing general laws which would place the 
country in position to sustain a long war. 
But the times were not propitious for that kind 
of advice, and it was lost upon a body whose 
enthusiasm had temporarily exceeded its judg- 
ment and discretion. 



[114] 



XIX. The Battle of 
Shiloh 



In the fall of 1861 Mr. Davis was elected 
President of the Confederate States for a 
term of six years, and on the 21st of February 
m the following year he was inaugurated. 
This message may hardly be called a state 
paper, as it was devoted rather to a recapitula- 
tion of the events of the war than to discussion 
of measures or the recommendation of policies. 

The tone of the message was hopeful, for not- 
withstanding the fall of Forts Donelson and 
Henry, and the evacuation of Bowling Green, 
the fortunes of war were decidedly with the 
South. 

However, in those catastrophes, which Mr. 
Davis passed lightly over, the ablest gen- 
erals in the Southern army saw the first re- 
sults of the fatal policy of attempting with 

[115] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

limited resources to defend every threatened 
point of a vast irregular frontier reaching 
from the Eio Grande to the Potomac. The 
three hundred thousand men in the Confeder- 
ate army at that time could have captured 
Washington or localized the whole Federal 
army in its defense, but scattered over an area 
of more than fifteen hundred miles, strength 
was dissipated and at every point they were 
too weak to attempt more than a defensive 
policy. Upon this point, however, Mr. Davis 
was inflexible, and absolutely refused to aban- 
don any place however insignificant from a 
strategic point of view, even when the soldiers 
holding it might have been used most effec- 
tively elsewhere. 

The Federal government soon perceived 
that this was to be the fixed policy of the Con- 
federate President and proceeded to make the 
most of it. McClellan's preparation for a 
blow at Richmond diverted attention from the 

[116] 



The Battle of Shiloh 

West where General Albert Sidney Johnston 
was left without hope of succor to deal with 
the armies of Grant and Buell. That great 
soldier, however, was equal to any emergency 
and prepared to strike before Grant and Buell 
could effect a junction. Fatally hampered as 
he was by the Commissary General's lack of 
foresight or preparation and with a staff too 
small and inexperienced to render the required 
services, he forced General Grant into the 
battle of Shiloh. More brilliant generalship 
was never shown upon any field than was that 
day displayed by the great Texan, who drove 
the Federal army back upon the river in the 
wildest confusion and disorder. At two 
o'clock the battle was won. A half hour later 
Johnston was dead — a victim of the foolish 
practice of the Southern generals of remaining 
on the firing line. The command devolved 
upon Beauregard who, instead of completing 
the victory, stopped the battle while more than 

[117] 



The Beat Jefferson Davis 

two hours of daylight remained. He thereby 
lost all that had been gained and insured his 
own defeat, for during the night, Buell's corps 
crossed the river and easily routed his army 
on the following day. 

What motives actuated Beauregard in this 
matter can only be conjectured. His amaz- 
ing conduct was never even plausibly ex- 
plained by himself. It was certainly not 
treachery, for his patriotism was unbounded. 
It was not incompetency, for tried by the 
usual standards, he was not lacking as a gen- 
eral. 

He at that time was not on good terms 
with the President, and then and ever he was 
vain and covetous of honors and fame. Had 
he completed the victory, the administration, 
the world, history would have credited it to 
Johnston. Had he succeeded in winning it on 
the following day, it would have been his own. 
From all that can be learned some such rea- 
son must have influenced him in halting a 

[118] 



m 








^ i -~"^- 

^ i 






M ik TB 


i& 









C. G. Memminger 



The Battle of Shiloh 

victorious army in the moment of its triumph. 
When the news of the fatal affair at Shiloh 
reached Davis, his rage knew no bounds, but 
instead of relieving Beauregard of his com- 
mand and bringing him promptly before a 
court martial, as Frederick or Napoleon would 
have done, he allowed him to remain at the 
head of the Western army without even ad- 
ministering a reprimand. In fact, not until 
Beauregard had left the army on sick leave 
about a month later did the President express 
any disapprobation. Then he declared that 
nothing would ever induce him to restore the 
offender to any command. But in most cases 
Mr. Davis' anger was short lived, and while 
we must admire that gentleness which un- 
doubtedly was responsible for his never pun- 
ishing any offender, it was nevertheless a 
weakness in the South' s Chief Executive from 
which it was destined to suffer greater ills than 
flowed from the oblivion which soon shrouded 
the offenses of this particular general. 

[119] 



XX. The Seven Days 
of Battle 



The gloom cast over the South by the re- 
verses of the West by no means discouraged 
President Davis, and taking the field in person 
he aided and directed his generals in prepar- 
ing for the defense of Eichmond against the 
impending attack of McClellan. 

The seven days' battle before Kichmond are 
particularly interesting to the military critic 
by reason no less of the valor displayed upon 
both sides than for the masterly strategy used 
by the two great antagonists. 

General Johnston, who had been severely 
criticised by the President, remained long 
enough on the field of Seven Pines to demon- 
strate the soundness of his plans by winning 
a great victory before he was stricken down 
and borne unconscious to the rear. General 

[121] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

Lee succeeded Johnston, and being reinforced 
by the indomitable Stonewall Jackson, whose 
soldiers were inspired by a series of recent mag- 
nificent victories in the Valley of Virginia, 
drove McClellan back so rapidly through a 
strange and difficult country that the wonder is 
he did not lose his entire army. 

For this feat, which must be regarded as 
one of the most brilliant pieces of maneu- 
vering in history, General McClellan was held 
up to execration and even his patriotism was 
questioned. In fact, the belief is still general 
that he lost the opportunity to capture Rich- 
mond, when as a matter of fact he could not 
have done so with an army of twice the size 
he commanded, as must be evident to any one 
who will remember that it took Grant, with 
an army of 200,000 men, more than a year 
to accomplish that result when confronted not 
by 100,000 of the best troops the world ever 
saw led by a dozen generals, either one of whom 

[122] 



The Seven Days of Battle 

Napoleon would have delighted to have made 
a marshal, but by less than 40,000 worn, 
starved and ragged veterans whose great com- 
manders with one or two exceptions, had fallen 
in battle. President Davis was not an ungen- 
erous enemy and at the time, as well as fre- 
quently in later life, expressed warm admira- 
tion for the soldierly qualities that enabled 
McClellan to extricate himself from a situa- 
tion which must have proved fatal to a less 
able commander. 



[123] 



XXI. Butler's Infamous 
Order 28 



This series of victories in some measure 
offset the blow the South sustained in the fall 
of E~ew Orleans, and immediately thereafter 
the President attempted to deal with the situa- 
tion in that quarter in a way which will serve 
to throw a strong side light upon another 
phase of his character. General Butler had 
hanged a semi-idiotic boy by the name of 
Munford for hauling down the flag from the 
mint. The act was one of impolicy, if not of 
wanton barbarity, and it aroused a storm of 
indignation throughout the South. This was, 
in a few days, followed by the infamous " Or- 
der ISTo. 28," which in retaliation for snubs 
received at the hands of the women of New 
Orleans, licensed the soldiers, upon repetition 
of the offense, " to greet them as women of 
the town plying their avocation." 

[125] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

President Davis at once issued a proclama- 
tion declaring Butler an outlaw, and placing a 
price upon his head and commanding that no 
commissioned officer of the United States should 
be exchanged until the culprit should meet with 
due punishment. The officers in Butler's 
army were also declared to be felons, their ex- 
change was prohibited and they were ordered 
to be treated as common criminals. 

As to the justice of the proclamation so far 
as it related to Butler himself few North or 
South at this day who have read " Order No. 
28 " will be inclined to question. But to at- 
tempt to attain to the officers of a numerous 
army with the guilt of a personal act of its 
commander must, upon due reflection, have ap- 
peared as absurd to the President as it did 
to the rest of the country. As a matter of fact 
the proclamation was never attempted to be 
executed although abundant chances were pre- 
sented, and it is very probable that had Butler 

[126] 



Butler s Infamous Order 28 

himself fallen into the hands of the Confed- 
erates he would have had nothing worse than 
imprisonment to fear had his fate been left 
to the President. 

Mr. Davis, as we all know, issued some 
very sanguinary proclamations in his time, 
but they were altogether sound and fury, " sig- 
nifying nothing," and not one of them was 
ever enforced. He no doubt hoped that their 
terrible aspect would operate as a detergent 
and no doubt they did at first. But gradually 
their seriousness came to be questioned and 
then they became a subject of amusement to 
both friend and foe. During his most event- 
ful administration, although hundreds of 
death warrants of criminals, who richly de- 
served the extreme punishment, came before 
him he never signed one of them or permitted 
an execution when he had the slightest oppor- 
tunity to interfere. 

This, of course, was charged by Pollard 
[127] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

and other enemies to his desire to save him- 
self, in the event the Confederacy should 
fail, but no motive could have been further 
from the correct one than this view of the 
case. The truth is that Jefferson Davis was as 
kindly, tender, gentle and considerate as a 
woman, and it was quite impossible for him 
to assume the responsibility of inflicting se- 
rious punishment or suffering of any kind 
upon any of God's creatures, human or other- 
wise. Had he hanged a few prisoners upon 
one or two occasions, it would have been of 
inestimable benefit to the South; had he exe- 
cuted one or two deserters in 1864, he would 
at once have checked an evil which was 
threatening the very existence of the Confed- 
eracy, but he did neither, although fully real- 
izing the impolicy of his course. And what- 
ever we may think of his strength of character 
we can but love the man whose humanity tri- 
umphed over passions, prejudice, policy and 



Butler s Infamous Order 28 

wisdom and brought him through those awful 
times that frightfully developed the savage in- 
stinct in the best of men without the taint of 
bloodshed upon his conscience. 



[129: 



XXII. Mental Imper- 
fections 



Histoey must finally charge all of Mr. 
Davis' blunders to no moral defective sense 
but rather to imperfect mental conceptions 
augmented and intensified by a strong infu- 
sion of self-confidence and stubbornness which 
frequently destroyed the perspective and 
blinded him to the truth apparent to other 
men of far less capacity. Criticism, however 
well meant, never enlightened him to his own 
mistakes. 

If he made a bad appointment, he saw 
in the objection to his protege ignorance of 
his merit, jealousy, a disposition to persecute, 
in fact anything rather than the possibility 
that he himself might have made a mistake. 

This unfortunate mental attitude, combined 
with the fixed idea that his genius was that 

[131] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

of the soldier was responsible for the most un- 
fortunate acts of his life. What his real 
merits as a soldier were we can only conjec- 
ture. In the Mexican War he demonstrated 
first-rate ability, but his highest command was 
that of a regiment. Although he constantly 
interfered with some of his generals with sug- 
gestions, sometimes tantamount to commands, 
he never exercised the military prerogative in 
directing troops in the field. We know that 
those suggestions were often wrong, but before 
concluding that his capacity as an active com- 
mander must be determined by them, we must 
remember that they were given usually at a 
great distance, and that they might have been 
otherwise had he understood the situation as 
thoroughly as he supposed he did. There i3 
probably no doubt that he would have proved 
a splendid brigade commander, but it is more 
than 'doubtful if he could ever have understood 
the science of war as Lee or Johnston or Jack- 
son knew it. 

[132] 



Mental Imperfections 

In Virginia, where President Davis did 
not attempt to interfere with his generals, the 
most brilliant triumphs of the South were 
won, and while this is not assigned as the only 
reason, the fact is nevertheless significant. 
From second Manassas, where the vain, boast- 
ful General Pope, who had won notoriety at 
Shiloh by reporting the capture of 10,000 Con- 
federates whom he must also have eaten as 
they never figured in parol, prison or exchange 
list — was annihilated by Jackson, to the bril- 
liant victory of Chancellorsville where the 
great soldier sealed his faith with his life- 
blood, the army of Northern Virginia was 
handled with that consummate generalship and 
displayed a degree of heroism which must ever 
challenge the admiration of mankind as the 
most perfect fighting machine in the world's 
history. 



[133] 



XXIII. Blunders of the 
Western Army 



During this time the Western army suffered 
one disaster after another in such rapid suc- 
cession that the warmest friends of the Confed- 
eracy began to despair of its future. Thor- 
oughly alarmed. President Davis overcame 
his animosity sufficiently to send General 
Johnston to the rescue, but instead of giving 
him full authority over one or both of the 
armies he designated him as the commander of 
a geographical department with little more 
than the power usually invested in an in- 
spector general. 

Bragg, the most unfortunate of all the 
Southern generals, commanded in Tennessee, 
where he was out-generaled and defeated at 
Murfreesboro when he held all of the win- 
ning cards in his own hands. His blunders 

[135] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

upon that field so enraged his officers 
that they were almost in revolt against him. 
However, in his fidelity to his old friend and 
I comrade, Mr. Davis failed to discover what 
was evident to every intelligent lieutenant in 
the army, and Bragg was continued in com- 
mand to perpetrate other blunders still more 
costly and unpardonable. 

The Southern corps of the Western army 
was still worse handled. The Mississippi 
River, after the fall of New Orleans and Mem- 
phis, was of little or no use to the Confeder- 
acy, but Mr. Davis conceived the idea that it 
must be defended although that course, nec- 
essarily would weaken Bragg and render suc- 
cess impossible to either corps. 

To the command of the Southern corps, Mr. 
Davis appointed General Pemberton, a theo- 
retical soldier who it was alleged had never 
witnessed any considerable engagement. How- 
ever this may be, his conduct fully sustained 

[136] 



Blunders of the Western Army 

the allegation, for, from start to finish, he seems 
to have been mystified by the tactics of Grant 
and Sherman, and after a series of marches 
and countermarches in which he lost much 
and gained nothing he fell back on Vicksburg, 
perhaps the most indefensible city in America, 
and prepared to sustain a siege, the outcome 
of which could not be doubtful for a moment. 
Being safely driven into a position from 
which there was but one line of retreat, Pem- 
berton appealed to the President for aid, and 
General Johnston was instructed to furnish it. 
His soldierly mind saw at a glancce that the 
proper thing to do was to abandon Vicksburg, 
and he accordingly ordered Pemberton to do 
so. That officer protested and appealed to Mr. 
Davis, who sustained him and notified John- 
ston that under no circumstances must Vicks- 
burg be abandoned. That decision sealed the 
fate of Pemberton's army, and on the day 
General Grant invested it he telegraphed to 

[137] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

Washington that its fall was only a question 
of time. How that prediction was verified by 
the surrender of Pemberton's anny of 30,000 
men, thus leaving Grant and Sherman free to 
double back on Bragg, are too well known to 
need any discussion at this time. All think- 
ing men realized that it sealed the doom of 
the Confederacy unless the Northern campaign 
of General Lee should prove successful. 



[138] 



XXIV. Davis and 
Gettysburg 



The conception of the Gettysburg campaign 
has been properly attributed to Mr. Davis, but 
much of the criticism that it has evoked is 
unfair being based upon a misconception of the 
object sought to be attained. If one will con- 
sider the moral effect that the victory of Chan- 
cellorsville produced throughout the North, that 
many influential leaders and a large part of the 
press openly declared that another such calamity 
must be followed by the recognition of the 
Confederacy, the idea of this Northern cam- 
paign, it must be conceded, was founded upon 
sound military principles. Military critics 
are very generally agreed that Gettysburg 
would have been a Confederate instead of a 
Union victory had the Southern troops oc 
cupied Little Eound Top on the evening of 

[139] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

the first day. That they did not is a fortuit- 
ous circumstance, which can militate nothing 
against the soundness of the idea involved in 
the campaign, while the fact that a victory 
so great as to have been decisive lay within 
easy grasp of the Confederates would seem to 
amply justify the hazard on the part of Presi- 
dent Davis. 

The last reasonable hope of success was 
over when Lee retreated from Pennsylvania, 
but if Mr. Davis recognized that fact he gave 
no indication of it. On the other hand, adver- 
sity had begun to develop that real strength 
of character which a little later was destined 
to win the respect of his enemies and the ad- 
miration of the rest of the world. 

Confederate finances had now sunk to so low 
an ebb that a collapse seemed inevitable. Con- 
gress passed one futile piece of legislation after 
another, each worse than its predecessor, and 
matters went from bad to worse with startling 

[140] 



Davis and Gettysburg 

rapidity. Mr. Davis was not a financier, but 
he brought forward a plan which, while it laid 
perhaps the heaviest burden of taxation ever 
placed upon a people, nevertheless served for 
a time to stem the fast rising tide of national 
bankruptcy. 

About the same time, deeply, impressed 
with the suffering of Federal prisoners 
caused by the cruel policy of refusing ex- 
changes, he attempted to send Vice-President 
Stephens to Washington to negotiate a gen- 
eral cartel with President Lincoln, but Ste- 
phens was allowed to proceed no farther than 
Fortress Monroe, and nothing came of the mis- 
sion which was conceived by Mr. Davis purely 
in the interest of humanity. 

As the fall drew on, Bragg was being pressed 
steadily back by an overwhelming force under 
Rosecrans, and it became apparent that an- 
other disaster was impending over the Confed- 
eracy. To avert it President Davis hurried 

[141] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

Longstreet's corps forward as reinforcements, 
a policy the soundness of which was demon- 
strated a little later by the great victory of 
Chickamauga. 

But again Bragg failed to measure up 
to the situation, and instead of capturing 
or destroying his antagonist, which a prompt 
pursuit must have insured, he actually re- 
fused to understand that the had won a vic- 
tory until its fruits were beyond his reach. 
Not even that costly piece of stupidity could 
quite shake the confidence of the President in 
his old friend, and it was not until Bragg had 
insured and received his own disastrous de- 
feat at Missionary Ridge and Lookout Moun- 
tain, by sending Longstreet's whole corps 
away on a wild-goose chase against Knoxville, 
that his resignation was accepted; and even 
then he was taken to Richmond and duly in- 
stalled as the military adviser of the Chief 
Executive. 

[142] 



Davis and Gettysburg 

The fortunes of the Confederacy were now 
at a low ebb. The Western army was demor- 
alized and so hopeless seemed the task of re- 
organization that one general after another 
refused to undertake it, until in his dilemma 
the President turned once more to General 
Johnston. That splendid soldier, forgetting 
past injuries, accepted the command and soon 
succeeded in creating an army whose very 
existence infused new courage throughout the 
Confederacy. In the meantime, Mr. Davis' 
resolution rose superior over the reverses that 
were everywhere overwhelming his govern- 
ment, and our admiration for the man vastly 
increases as we see him steering, wisely now, 
his foundering nation into that dark year 
1864, destined to reveal to us a great man 
growing greater, better and more lovable 
under the heavy accumulation of terrible mis- 
fortune. 

[143] 



XXV. The Chief of a 
Heroic People 



y 



The world has never witnessed a more 
sublime spectacle than that presented by the 
Southern people at the beginning of 1864. 
The finances of the government had gone from 
bad to worse until it required a bursting purse 
to purchase a dinner. Or, rather it would 
have done so had the dinner been procurable 
at all, which in most cases it was not. Gaunt 
famine stalked through a desolate land scarred 
by the remains of destroyed homes and 
drenched in the blood of its best manhood. 
Scarcely a home had escaped the besom of 
death and destruction, and, on the lordly do- 
mains where once a prodigal and princely 
hospitality had been daily dispensed, children 
cried in vain for the bread that the broken- 
hearted mother could no longer give. That 

[145] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

such terrific desolation should have failed to 
force submission is almost beyond understand- 
ing, but it produced exactly the opposite result. 

Delicately nurtured women, reared in ease 
and luxury, cheerfully chose to starve in 
thread-bare garments while they sent their silver 
and jewels to the government to enable it to con- 
tinue the struggle. They bade their husbands 
and sons and brothers to remain at the front 
and never sheathe their swords unless in an 
honorable peace; and forthwith the stripling 
of tender years and the gray-bearded grand- 
sire, bowed with the infirmities of time, went 
forth to perform prodigies of valor upon the 
last sanguinary fields of the dying Confed- 
eracy. 

The President of the Confederacy was too 
wise a man not to realize the significance 
of the situation at that time. He fully real- 
ized the awful suffering of his people. He 
saw his armies driven from the West, the 

[146] 




Mr. and Mrs. Davis in 1863 



The Chief of a Heroic People 

lines of the Confederacy daily contracting. 
He saw the last hope of foreign intervention 
die and he witnessed the birth, even in the gov- 
ernment, of a strong spirit of hostility to him- 
self. What this must have meant to a man of 
his sensitive, kindly nature we may readily 
guess, but to the world his attitude was most 
admirable. Calm, resolute, majestic he stood 
at the helm, steering the foundering craft of 
state through the last storm as steadily, as 
resolutely as though he knew a haven of safety 
instead of destruction to lie just beyond. 

Early in 1864 it became apparent that such 
an effort as had never been made before to 
crush the Confederacy was impending. Gen- 
eral Grant was transferred to the East, and 
early in the spring with a magnificent army 
of 162,000 began his advance upon Kichmond. 
The great Confederate chieftain, Lee, with a 
force one-third as great confronted him, and 
then began that mighty duel which must al- 

[147] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

ways remain the wonder and admiration of 
the world. In the Wilderness Lee struck a 
staggering blow, which halted the advance and 
doubled up the Federal army. Grant an- 
nounced that he proposed to fight it out on that 
line if it took all summer, straightened his lines 
and began the campaign, which one may more 
readily understand if he will imagine some 
Titan armed with a ponderous hammer, con- 
fronting a wily, agile antagonist, who must 
rely upon a rapier sharp, indeed, but slender 
to a dangerous degree. Incessantly through 
those spring days the forests rang with the 
clamor of blows. At Culpepper and Spottsyl- 
vania and North Anna the hammer fell and 
was parried by the rapier, Grant always mov- 
ing by the flank and seeking to out-maneuver 
his antagonist and always failing to do so. By 
June, the two armies in their side-stepping 
tactics had reached Cold Harbor, where Grant 
in a great frontal attack lost 13,000 men in 

[148] 



The Chief of a Heroic People 

a few moments, which must have convinced 
him that it would take longer than all sum- 
mer to fight it out on that line, as he then 
and there abandoned it and adopted a new 
one. In three months he had lost 150,000 
men and was not so near Kichmond as Mc- 
Clellan had been in 1862. 



[149] 



XXVI. Sherman and 
Johnston 



In the meantime that campaign which was 
destined to place Sherman and Johnston in the 
very front rank of the world's great command- 
ers, was in progress. Both were masters of 
military strategy and each fully appreciated 
the ability of the other. Sherman ever seek- 
ing to draw Johnston into a pitched battle 
was constantly thwarted. At Dalton, Resaca 
and Marietta Johnston delivered hard blows, 
falling back before his antagonist could use 
his superior numbers to any advantage. 

By this means he reached Atlanta with a 
larger army than he had in the beginning of 
the campaign, while that of Sherman had de- 
creased from one hundred to little more than 
fifty thousand. Johnston's tactics of wearing 
out the enemy by drawing him through a hos- 

[151] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

tile country away from his base of supplies 
is now admitted by military critics to have 
been a piece of masterly strategy. It is also 
generally conceded that Sherman could not 
have captured Atlanta by siege with three 
times his force. But although Johnston had 
repulsed every assault upon his works and 
was daily growing stronger, President Davis 
was greatly displeased with this defensive 
policy and constantly importuned him to give 
\ battle. This Johnston refused to do and was 
I relieved of the command by the President, who 
appointed General Hood, who^of he declared 
" would at least deliver one manly blow for 
the South." 

In so far as the delivery of the blow was 
concerned he was destined not to be disap- 
pointed, but very greatly so in the result. 
The very day that he took command, Hood, 
| a brave, impetuous man of slight ability and 
poor judgment, left his works, furiously as- 

[152] 




The Davis Children in 1863 



Sherman and Johnston 

saulted Sherman, and was promptly cut to 
pieces. The Confederate army was practically 
annihilated, and the fall of Atlanta made cer- 
tain the success of that famous march to the 
sea which alone would have doomed the Con- 
federacy. 

General Johnston, too great to cherish re- 
sentment, once more yielded to the appeals of 
the President and took command of the shat- 
tered army. But the time had passed when he 
might have accomplished any substantial re- 
sults and henceforth even his genius could not 
serve to postpone the end. 



[153] 



XXVII. Mr. Davis 5 

Humanity 



In the meantime, amidst these disasters and 
the gloomy forebodings that were settling over 
the South, Mr. Davis did not forget the suf- 
ferings of the army of captives that languished 
in Southern prisons. Time and again he had 
sought to establish a cartel for the exchange of 
all prisoners but it had never been faithfully 
observed by the Federal government, and at 
last General Grant had refused to exchange 
upon any terms, declaring that to do so would 
ensue the defeat of Sherman's army. The re- 
sult was that the Southern prisons were rapidly 
filled, and as supplies and medicines failed, the 
sufferings in some places, notably Anderson- 
ville, became intense. The prisoners were 
placed upon the same rations as the Confed- 
erate soldiers, but they had never been used to 

[155] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

such fare and it meant starvation to them. 
The ravages of malaria among them was ap- 
palling, and yet as the Federal government had 
made quinine contraband of war not an ounce 
of it could be procured for their use. 

Mr. Davis, whose strongest trait of character 
was gentleness and humanity, felt keenly this 
state of affairs, and sought by every power at 
his command to ameliorate it. When the propo- 
sition to exchange was rejected, he asked that 
medicines and supplies be sent for the exclu- 
sive use of Northern prisoners. When that 
was refused, he asked that doctors and nurses 
be furnished from the Federal army. That 
also failing, and the condition of the sufferers 
at Andersonville growing worse he finally of- 
fered to liberate them provided the government 
would take them out of the South — a proposi- 
tion which was not accepted until after many 
months of useless delay which cost thousands 
of lives. 

[156] 



Mr. Davis' Humanity 

Thus it will be seen how baseless was that 
calumny which yet survives in some quarters 
that Jefferson Davis was responsible for the 
sufferings of those poor unfortunates who in 
reality were sacrificed by an indifferent govern- 
ment, which feared to recruit the ranks of the 
Confederate army by the exchange of prisoners 
although such a course was dictated by the laws 
of civilized warfare no less than by motives of 
humanity. In reality Mr. Davis did far more 
than required by the laws of nations, and the 
verdict of history not only acquits him of any 
share in that great iniquity, but places him in 
marked contrast to his antagonists who chose 
to sacrifice their soldiers rather than jeopar- 
dize the prospects of an early final victory. 

The brilliant victory of Colquitt at Ocean 
Pond, of Forest at Fort Pillow, and other 
minor successes gained by the Confederate 
leaders added scarcely a transient ray of hope. 
Clouds of smoke by day, a pillar of fire by 

[157] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

night, marked the advance of Sherman 
through Georgia. The most fruitful region of 
the South was left a charred and dessolate ruin. 
Tilly, the Duke of Alva, nor Wallenstein ever 
left destruction so complete and irremediable 
as that which marked the path of that great 
soldier who declared war was hell and fully 
lived up to that harsh conviction. 

After the fall of Savannah, the blue legions 
now irresistible, turned northward, and it be- 
came apparent that the vitals of the Confederacy 
lay between the two huge iron jaws of Grant's 
and Sherman's armies which were closing 
with a steady force that nothing could resist. 

Day and night Grant rained his mighty 
sledge-hammer blows upon the defenses of the 
devoted capital, which Lee met and parried 
with the skill of consummate military genius. 
But the blade of the rapier was growing thinner 
and the time must come when it would break. 
Holding works forty miles in length with less 

[158] 



Sherman and Johnston 

than a thousand soldiers to the mile, he in- 
flicted repulse after repulse until the South- 
ern people came to regard him as invincible. 

Even Mr. Davis, who was now almost con- 
stantly with his great Captain, seems to have 
shared the delusion, and despite his warnings 
that the end must soon come delayed his de- 
parture from Kichmond. 

At last on Sunday, April 2, 1865, a cour- 
ier entered old St. John's in the midst of 
services and handed the President a tele- 
gram. It was General Lee's notice that 
he could no longer hold his lines. Mr. 
Davis quietly left the church, but all under- 
stood and soon a panic reigned in the quiet old 
city. This was increased by the terrific ex- 
plosions that came from the river and arsenals 
where warships and military supplies were 
being destroyed. That night the fires from 
burning warehouses lighted the train that bore 
out of the doomed city the President and his 

[159] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

cabinet and the archives of the fugitive gov- 
ernment. Whether from the sparks of the 
burning arsenals or from the torches of in- 
cendiaries will never be known, but that night 
a fierce conflagration swept over the city, and 
when in the gray dawn of the next morning 
General Godfrey Weitzel's cavalry rode 
through the smoldering streets and raised the 
stars and stripes over Virginia's ancient and 
the Confederates' recent capital, it floated over 
a scene of desolation only a little less complete 
than Napoleon beheld when he looked for the 
last time from the ancient Krimlin upon de- 
stroyed Moscow. 



[160] 



XXVIII. General Lee's 
Surrender 



History has fully recorded the last scenes of 
the heroic effort of the peerless Lee to fall back 
upon Danville and effect a junction with Gen- 
eral Johnston and it is unnecessary here to re- 
late how surrounded by overwhelming num- 
bers and reduced to starvation he finally at 
Appomattox surrendered the remaining 7,500 
of that superb army which, without doubt, had 
been the most magnificent fighting machine in 
the world's history. 

In the meantime the fugitive government 
reached Danville in a pouring ram. There 
were no accommodations for the officials, no 
place to install the executive machinery. Gen- 
eral Breckenridge, sitting upon a camp stool 
in front of the damp dingy little station, stud- 
ied a map and drew the lines along which 

[161] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

Johnston and Lee should advance. The Sec- 
retary of State, reclining upon a knapsack, 
talked hopefully of the recognition that was 
certain to arrive from England and France in 
a few days. Mr. Reagan chewed a straw and 
said nothing. It was a dull day in the depart- 
ment of justice, and the Attorney-General 
paced the platform and looked thoughtfully 
toward Canada. At last it was decided to be- 
gin work and the clerks seated themselves 
around tables in the cars, and the government 
was soon once more issuing all kinds of orders. 
Mr. Davis, calm and tranquil as usual, had 
made up his mind never to surrender as long 
as resistance was possible unless he could se- 
cure favorable terms for his people. For him- 
self he asked nothing, but he believed it his 
duty to continue the struggle until the funda- 
mental principles of a free people should be 
secured for the South. This he did not doubt 
could be accomplished by the junction of Lee 

tl«21 




The Surrender of Lee 



General Lee's Surrender 

and Johnston. It was, of course, a great blow 
to his hopes when the news of Lee's surrender 
reached him, but he belonged to that rare type 
of man whose courage and resolution grow 
stronger in the face of adversity. His only 
hope now lay in Johnston's army, but with 
it he declared the South could conquer an hon- 
orable peace against the world in arms. 

With this idea in view the wandering govern- 
ment moved on to Greensboro. There, the 
President was informed by General Johnston 
of the utter hopelessness of longer continuing 
the struggle. That the old veteran was right 
now admits of no doubt, but Mr. Davis com- 
bated the idea most vigorously. Johnston as- 
sured him that while a surrender was a matter 
of days in any event that Sherman would sign 
an agreement guaranteeing the political rights 
of the people in the subjugated states. This 
Mr. Davis rightfully believed the Federal 
government would repudiate, but left his gen- 

[163] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

eral full discretion in the matter, moving on 
southward, intending to cross the Mississippi, 
join the army of Kirby Smith and continue 

Vthe war in Texas. 
V Just as he was leaving Greensboro he 
received the news of President Lincoln's 
assassination. None who ever really knew 
Mr. Davis can doubt what his feelings 
were upon that occasion. General Keagan, 
who was with him, says his face expressed sur- 
prise and horror in the most unmistakable 
[ manner. " It is too bad, it is shocking, it is 
horrible 1 " he declared, and then after a mo- 
ment's reflection added, " This is bad for the 
South. Mr. Lincoln understood us and at 
least was not an ungenerous foe." 

That very morning the little daughter of his 
host came running in and in wide-eyed terror 
said that some one had told her that " Old 
Lincoln was coming to kill everybody." Mr. 
Davis, taking her upon his knees, said sooth- 

[164] 



General Lee's Surrender 

ingly : " You are wrong, my dear, Mr. Lin- 
coln is not a bad man. He would not willingly 
harm any one, and he dearly loves little girls 
like yon." These incidents, trivial enough in 
themselves, are nevertheless interesting as in- 
dices of Jefferson Davis' opinion of Mr. Lin- 
coln. 



[165] 



XXIX. The Capture of 
Davis 



Proceeding to Charlotte, Mr. Davis there 
learned of the surrender of General Johnston. 
Determining to make his way to Texas he de- 
cided to take a southerly route which he hoped 
to find free from Federal troops. A cavalry 
force of about two thousand accompanied him 
as far as the Savannah River, but there dis- 
covering General Wilson's brigade to be in the 
country in front it was deemed advisable for 
the force to disband and Mr. Davis, with 
Burton Harrison, his secretary, and a few 
others to go forward in the hope of escaping 
discovery. 

At Irwinsville, Ga., he learned that his 
family, which was also proceeding west- 
ward, was but a few miles away and he 
was advised that the country was filled with 

[167] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

marauders who were rifling and robbing all 
strangers whose appearance indicated the pos- 
session of valuables. This information, cou- 
pled with the story that Mrs. Davis' party was 
believed to possess a valuable treasure, so 
alarmed Mr. Davis for the safety of his family 
that he resolved to join it at all hazards. This 
resolution cost him his liberty. 

Perhaps no event of history has ever been so 
grossly and malignantly misrepresented as the 
capture of Jefferson Davis. At the time an 
absurd story was published along with a car- 
toon in even so respectable a paper as Har- 
per's "Weekly, which represented Mr. Davis 
at the time of his capture arrayed in shawl, 
bonnet and hoop-skirts, and, strange as it may 
seem, this ridiculous screed is still accepted 
by thousands of intelligent people as cor- 
rect history. The true facts of the case, as 
learned from Mr. Davis and corroborated 
by both General Wilson and Mr. Burton 
Harrison, are as follows: 

[168] 



The Capture of Davis 

The Confederate President reached the spot 
where his wife's party had pitched its tent after 
nightfall. During the evening it was decided 
that, to avoid discovery, he would leave the 
party on the following day and thenceforward 
would proceed westward alone. About daylight 
the travelers were awakened by firing across a 
nearby stream, and Mr. Davis thinking it an 
attack from marauders remarked to his wife 
that he hoped he still had enough influence 
with the Southern people to prevent her rob- 
bery and stepped out of the tent. Almost im- 
mediately he returned saying it was not ma- 
rauders but Federal soldiers. Mrs. Davis, 
frantic with fright, begged him to fly. In the 
darkness of the tent he picked up a light rain 
coat, which he supposed to be his own but 
which belonged to his wife, and she threw a 
shawl around his shoulders. His horse stood 
saddled by the roadside and he ran toward it, 
but before he could reach it a trooper inter- 

[169] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

posed and with leveled carbine bade him sur- 
render. Intending to place his hand under 
the foot of the soldier and topple him out of 
the saddle he gave a defiant answer and rushed 
forward. Mrs. Davis, however, now inter- 
posed and Mr. Davis seeing the opportunity 
lost walked back to the tent, where a few mo- 
ments later he surrendered to Colonel Pritch- 
ard of the Fifth Michigan Cavalry. 

!No soldier who took part in the capture of 
Mr. Davis ever supposed that he attempted to 
disguise himself, and the story of the bonnet 
and the hoop-skirts is, of course, pure fiction. 
The picture of the illustrious captive, pre- 
sented in this edition, represents him exactly 
as he appeared at the time of his capture, 
when divested of the shawl and raglan, which 
in no way served to conceal his identity, much 
less his sex. 

Despite the efforts of Colonel Pritchard to 
spare Mr. Davis all indignities, many insults 

[170] 



The Capture of Davis 

were heaped upon him enroute to Macon. 
Once arrived at that point he was furnished 
with a comfortable suite of rooms and after 
a time General Wilson sought an interview, 
during the course of which Mr. Davis first 
learned that he was accused of complicity in 
the assassination of President Lincoln, and of 
Andrew Johnson's proclamation offering 
$100,000 reward for his apprehension. 

Those who knew Mr. Davis will remember 
him best by his habitual expresion of calm dig- 
nity and benign gentleness. One would imagine 
that scorn or contempt could never disturb that 
face, but General Wilson says that when he 
imparted the above information that his lips 
curved in contempt, that his brows were 
knitted and that there was a deep gleam of 
anger in his eyes which, however, soon softened 
away as he remarked, with a half rueful smile, 
that there was at least one man in the United 
States who knew that charge to be false. Gen- 

[171] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

eral Wilson, of course, asked who it was, and 
Mr. Davis replied, " The author of the 
proclamation himself, for he, at least, knows 
that of the two I would have preferred Lin- 
coln as president." 

From Macon Mr. Davis was sent under 
guard to Augusta, and from thence on a river 
tug in company with Clement C. Clay and 
Alexander H. Stephens, to Port Royal, where 
they were transferred to a steamer which con- 
veyed them to Fortress Monroe. During the 
time they were anchored off shore crafts of all 
descriptions swarmed around, and the insults 
and gibes of the morbid sight seekers keenly 
annoyed the illustrious prisoner, and it was 
a relief when a file of soldiers came to escort 
him ashore. He requested permission from 
General Miles for his family to proceed to 
Washington or Eichmond, but this was curtly 
refused and they were sent back to Savannah. 

[172] 



XXX. A Nation's 
Shame 



In Fortress Monroe, Mr. Davis was con- 
fined in a gun room of a casement which was 
heavily barricaded with iron bars. Two sen- 
tries with loaded muskets and fixed bayonets 
were posted in the room, while two others 
paced up and down in front of his cell. 

Escape would have been impossible for any 
one, however strong and vigorous, and he, now 
an old man, was weak, feeble and emaciated. 

Yet on the third day after his incarceration, 
while the victorious troops of the republic were 
passing in solemn review before the President 
and generals of a great nation, there was en- 
acted in that little cell at Fortress Monroe a 
scene which must forever cause the blush of 
shame to mantle the brow of every American at 
its mere mention. A file of soldiers entered the 

[173] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

cell and Captain Jerome Titlow, with evident 
pain and reluctance informed Mr. Davis that 
he had a most unpleasant duty to perform, 
which was to place manacles upon him. Mr. 
Davis demanded who had given such an order, 
and upon being informed that it was General 
Miles, asked to see him. This was refused by 
Captain Titlow, who sought to induce him to 
submit peaceably to the inevitable. " It is an 
order which no soldier would give and which 
none should obey. Shoot me now and end at 
once this miserable persecution I " At the 
same time the fallen chieftain drew himself 
up to his full height and faced the soldiers, his 
hands clenching in convulsive grasps and his 
eyes gleaming like those of a hunted tiger 
driven to bay. A word from Captain Titlow 
and a soldier with the shackles in hand ad- 
vanced, but before he could touch the captive 
he dealt him a blow which felled him upon 
the floor. Necessarily the struggle was a short 

[174] 



A Nations Shame 

one and in a few moments heavy irons were 
riveted upon his ankles and one of the fore- 
most of living statesmen lay upon a miserable 
straw mattress chained as though he had been 
the vilest of desperate criminals. 

Had Garibaldi or Napoleon after Sedan 
been subjected to the crowning indignity in- 
flicted upon Jefferson Davis all Europe would 
have rung with the infamy of the brutal act, 
and yet the whirlwind of sectional strife had 
so fanned the fires of prejudice and hatred 
that the act was generally applauded at the 
North, and the officer responsible for this 
crime against civilization for many years ex- 
hibited the shackles as though they had been 
a trophy of honorable victory. 

Let us as Americans be thankful that such 
perverted sentiment was short lived, and that a 
day came when the infamous act was repudiated 
as wantonly cruel and brutal, and its perpe- 
trators were more anxious to avoid the respon- 

[175] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

sibility for it than formerly they had been to 
assume it. There is now no longer any doubt 
as to the person who is responsible for placing 
Jefferson Davis in irons, but it is only fair to 
General Miles to say that he was very young 
at the time. The grave charges against Mr. 
Davis, no doubt, served to mislead his imma- 
ture judgment, and from the fact that Louis 
Napoleon had recently escaped from a forti- 
fication in France he, no doubt, believed that 
the extreme adn cruel measure was necessary. 
In justice it should be further stated that 
as soon as General Miles believed the danger 
of escape no longer great he gave orders for 
the removal of the shackles, and thereafter 
treated Mr. Davis with much kindness. The 
story of Mr. Davis' two years' imprisonment 
at Fortress Monroe is too well known from Dr. 
Craven's impartial, if somewhat fragmentary, 
account to need further repetition here. 

[176] 



XXXI. Efforts to Exe- 
cute Mr. Davis 



It is a difficult matter at this distance of 
time to realize the attitude of public sentiment 
against Jefferson Davis the state prisoner of 
Fortress Monroe. As the chief executive of 
the late Confederacy, he was, in popular esti- 
mation, the incarnation, if not the proximate 
cause, of all the sins and suffering of Kebel- 
lion, but worse than all the administration 
which in feverish, puerile haste had declared 
him an accessory to the assassination of Mr. 
Lincoln and upon that score had paid out of 
the public treasury $100,000 for his capture, 
could not, or rather dared not reverse its atti- 
tude and speak the truth. The result was, of 
course, that the vast majority of the people at 
the North believed Mr. Davis to be as guilty 
of murder as he was of treason, and conse- 

[177] 



The Beat Jefferson Davis 

quently there was a mighty clamor for his 
summary execution. 

Had there been a scintilla of evidence, nay, 
had there been any fact which human ingenu- 
ity could have tortured into a plausible re- 
semblance to guilty knowledge of Mr. Lin- 
coln's death, no one will now doubt that Jef- 
ferson Davis would have been murdered as 
was Mrs. Serrat. 

Andrew Johnston within ninety days after 
he had issued his ridiculously false proclama- 
tion admitted it to be without foundation — a 
fact which all along was fully realized by 
every member of the government who had per- 
sonally known the accused. And yet a coterie 
of radicals, headed by a conspicuous member 
of the Cabinet, continued to search by such 
questionable means for incriminating evidence 
that is disgusted the just, conservative men of 
all parties, and they demanded that the sense- 
less accusation he dropped for all time. 

[178] 



Efforts to Execute Mr. Davis 

However, a chance jet remained to dispose 
of the fallen chieftain without incurring any 
of the trouble and risk that must arise from 
a trial according to the laws of the land. 

Thousands of Federal prisoners had starved 
and died at Andersonville and throughout the 
North this tale of suffering had inspired such 
horror and indignation that there was a gen- 
eral demand for the punishment of those who 
were supposed to be responsible for it. Cap- 
tain Wirz, the commandant of Andersonville, 
was accordingly haled before a drum-head 
court martial and, despite the fact that he 
conclusively demonstrated that conditions re- 
sponsible for the horrors of that pest hole were 
beyond his own control, or that of any man or 
number of men in the Confederacy, he was 
promptly convicted and was sentenced to 
death. 

Then a serviceable, if not honorable, idea 
seized the hysterical radicals, which was 

[179] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

nothing less than the feasibility of holding 
Jefferson Davis responsible for the horrors of 
Andersonville. But there again the ingenuity 
of malice failed to discover any evidence ex- 
cept that which was highly creditable to the 
intended victim. 

All that followed in the nefarious plot 
is not and never will be fully known, but 
from the declaration of the priest, who 
was Captain Wirz's spiritual adviser, as 
well as from other authentic information, 
there is no room whatever to doubt that the 
condemned man was offered his life and lib- 
erty if he would swear that in the manage- 
ment of the prison he had acted under the di- 
rection of Jefferson Davis. Captain Wirz, 
however, was a brave and honorable man and 
scorning to purchase his life with such a lie, 
he met his fate like a soldier. This left but 
one other course open. If Mr. Davis were 
to be punished at all, it must be for treason. 

[180] 



Efforts to Execute Mr. Davis 

The idea appealed to the radicals with some- 
thing of the same zest that a child experiences 
from its first gaudy toy, and for a time they 
fairly reveled in visions of a court martial 
which, unincumbered of the troublesome rules 
of evidence observed in courts of law, would 
speedily give the desired result. 

But fortunately for the American people, 
there were men in the Cabinet and in Con- 
gress, who knowing the law, clearly saw that 
such a course of procedure must shock the 
whole civilized world and reduce the guaran- 
tees of the Constitution to a parity with the 
so-called organic law of the revolutionary des- 
potisms of Central American and South Amer- 
ica. Against this sentiment the ravings of the 
vindictive cabal availed nothing, and, as the 
months went by, it became evident that if a 
trial ever came, it must be according to the 
laws of the land. 



[181] 



XXXII. Indictment of 
Mr. Davis 



In the meantime Mr. Davis was constantly 
demanding that he be given the speedy and 
impartial trial provided in snch cases by the 
Constitution. 

Charles O'Connor, then the greatest of liv- 
ing lawyers, Henry Ould and many other lead- 
ing members of the bar from the Northern 
states volunteered to defend Mr. Davis, while 
Thaddens Stevens proffered his services to 
Clement C. Clay. Horace Greeley, through 
the columns of the Tribune, constantly de- 
manded that Mr. Davis be either liberated 
or brought to trial, and by the spring of the 
year 1866 he had created such a sentiment 
throughout the country in favor of his conten- 
tions that the government could no longer delay 
some action. 

[183] 



The Beat Jefferson Davis 

Accordingly in May an indictment was 
procured, charging Jefferson Davis with high 
treason against the United States, and in June 
of the same year Mr. Boutwell offered a reso- 
lution in Congress that the accused should be 
tried according to the laws of the land, which 
passed that body by a vote of 105 to 19. 

But despite that resolution, there were those 
who clearly foresaw the danger involved in it, 
and hoping that time might dispose of the ne- 
cessity for any trial at all, urged delay as the 
wisest measure. Consequently, despite the ef- 
forts of Greeley and Gerritt Smith, and other 
great men of the North, the trial was post- 
poned until May, 1867. 

Mr. Davis, weak pale and emaciated, ap- 
peared before Crief Justice Chase sitting with 
Justice Underwood in the Circuit Court at 
Richmond. The court-room was crowded to its 
utmost capacity and despite the stern discipline 
sought to be enforced it was with the greatest 

[184] 



Indictment of Mr. Davis 

difficulty that the applause could be suppressed 
that from time to time greeted the profound 
logic and masterly eloquence of Charles O'Con- 
nor's great speech on a motion to quash the in- 
dictment. The arguments lasted two days and 
at their conclusion Chief Justice Chase voted 
to quash the indictment, while Justice Under- 
wood voted to sustain it, thus necessitating a 
reference of the matter to the Supreme Court 
of the United States for final decision. In ac- 
cordance with a previous arrangement Mr. 
Davis was soon afterward admitted to bail, 
Horace Greeley, Gerritt Smith, Augustus 
Schell and a number of other former political 
enemies becoming his bondsmen. 



[186] 



XXXIII. Why Davis Was Not 
Tried for Treason 



From that moment the administration knew 
that Jefferson Davis would never be tried for 
treason and drew a long breath of relief. Yes, 
the administration knew, but the general pub- 
lic, beyond the gilded vagaries about humanity 
and the magnanimity of a great nation to a 
vanquished foe, sedulously promulgated to ob- 
scure the real reason, has never understood why 
Jefferson Davis was never tried for the high 
crime which it was alleged that he had com- 
mitted against the United States. 

Unfortunately the restricted space at this 
time at the disposal of the author precludes 
anything more than setting forth the conclu- 
sions based upon the evidence now in his pos- 
session, of why this charge was so joyously 
abandoned by an administration which less 

[18T] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

than two years before had moved heaven and 
earth to discover any pretext which might lend 
the color of justice to the summary execution 
of the illustrious chieftain of the Confederacy. 
To one in any way accquainted with popular 
■ v itiment, with the temper of the administra- 
tion even in 1867, all declarations of magna- 
nimity, generosity and abhorrence of extreme 
'measures must seem the merest cant. It is, of 
course, not beyond the pale of possibility that 
those who in 1865 were willing to descend to 
any depths of infamy to secure a pretext for the 
execution of Mr. Davis might have experi- 
enced a change of heart in two years suffi- 
ciently marked to create conscientious scruples 
against putting him upon a fair trial in a 
court of justice on the charge of treason. But 
that theory of the case would be altogether un- 
likely even if we did not know that the desire 
of the administration to hang Jefferson Davis 
was just as intense in 1867 as it was two years 

[188] 



Why Davis Was Not Tried for Treason 

before. That it did not attempt to accom- 
plish that result through the regular channels 
of justice, is due entirely to the fact that such 
a trial would have opened up the whole ques- 
tion of secession for final adjudication by our 
highest court of last resort. It would have 
been a trial not so much of Mr. Davis as of 
the question of state rights, and the able law- 
yers of the administration, partisans as they 
were, had no desire to see the highest judicial 
body of the land reverse an issue which had 
been satisfactorily decided by the sword. 

Charles O'Connor's bold declaration that 
Jefferson Davis could never be convicted of 
treason under the Constitution as it then stood 
first aroused the administration to the dangers 
of the task that it had assumed. Mr. John- 
son sent for his attorney-general and had him 
prepare an opinion on the case. In due time 
it was submitted. It was a veritable bomb- 
shell which fairly demolished every theory 

[189] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

upon which Jefferson Davis might have been 
convicted of treason or any other crime. 

Mr. Johnston then called to his aid two of 
the greatest constitutional lawyers of the age, 
and they agreed with the conclusions of Mr. 
Stanberry. Not satisfied with this, he invited 
the chief justice to a conference for a full dis- 
cussion of the matter. 

If there was ever a partisan, it was Salmon 
P. Chase, but at the same time he was a great 
lawyer and an honest and fearless man. " Lin- 
coln," he said, " wanted Jeff. Davis to escape. 
He was right. His capture was a mistake, his 
trial will be a greater one. We cannot con- 
vict him of treason. Secession is settled. Let 
it stay settled ! " Significant words truly from 
that source, and they explain the vote of the 
great judge who would have quashed the in- 
dictment against Mr. Davis no less then the 
question so often asked, " Why was Jefferson 
Davis never tried for treason ? " 

[190] 



Why Davis Was Not Tried for Treason 

Immediately after Mr. Davis' release on 
bond, he went with his family to New York, 
and a few weeks later to Montreal, where he 
continued to reside until May of the following 
year when he again appeared before the Cir- 
cuit Court in Richmond for trial. But de- 
spite the efforts of his counsel to force a trial 
of the case, it was dismissed by the govern- 
ment and thus ended ingloriously the boast 
of the government that it intended " in the 
arch traitor Davis to make treason odious." 



[191] 



XXXIV. Freedom, 
Reverses, 
Beauvoir 



Impaired in health and longing for rest far 
away from the tragic scenes of the past few 
years, Mr. Davis accepted the invitation of 
English friends to visit them. But it was soon 
discovered that his visit was to be a continuous 
ovation. Everywhere he was greeted as 
though he had been the conqueror instead of 
the vanquished. The spirit that prompted 
those manifestations he appreciated, but it re- 
vived sad memories of the cause for which he 
had staked all and lost, and to avoid this lion- 
izing he took up his residence in Paris. 

The cordiality of the Frenchmen, however, 
surpassed that of their English brethren, and 
Mr. Davis soon found himself so much in the 
public eye that he decided to return to Eng- 
land. Before quitting Paris, the emperor 

[193] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

conveyed his desire for an audience, which 
Mr. Davis courteously refused. Napoleon, he 
conceived, had acted in bad faith with the 
South and such was the moral rectitude of the 
man that he could never disguise his contempt 
for any one, of however exalted station, whom 
he believed to be guilty of double dealing of 
any kind. 

As the guest of Lord Leigh and the 
Duke of Shrewsbury in Wales, Mr. Davis' 
health gradually improved until he felt him- 
self once more able to enter an active business 
of life. The war had left him a poor man, 
and when a life insurance company of Mem- 
phis offered him its presidency with a fair sal- 
ary he accepted, and with his family returned 
to America. The people of Memphis soon 
after his arrival presented him a fine resi- 
dence, but this he refused. 

Mr. Davis was probably a very poor business 
man and his associates of the insurance com- 

[194] 



Freedom — Reverses — Beauvoir 

pan j were in no way superior, for its affairs 
soon became anything but prosperous. All of 
his available capital was invested in it, but 
this he gladly sacrificed in order to sell his 
own company to a stronger one which could 
protect the policies of the former. 

The people of Texas, learning of Mr. Davis' 
losses offered to give him an extensive stock j 
farm in that state, but this he also refused. 

Upon the Gulf of Mexico, near the little sta- 
tion of Beauvoir, Mr. Davis owned a tract of 
land which he conceived would support his 
family, and there, far from the strife of the 
busy world, he resolved to spend the declining 
years of his life. However, retirement at best 
could only be partial, for a man loved and ven- 
erated as Mr. Davis was throughout the South, 
and Beauvoir accordingly became the shrine of 
the public men who sought the counsel of its 
sage. But with the modesty characteristic of 
the man he refused to advise any one upon 

[195] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

measures of national import, since by the 
action of Congress he was forever disfran- 
chised. 

He would not ask pardon, sincerely believing 
that he had done no wrong, and when the peo- 
ple of Mississippi would have elected him to 
the United States Senate he declined the honor 
in words which should be perused by all who 
know the man as he was, during this period 
of his life : " The franchise is yours here, and 
Congress can but refuse you admission and 
your exclusion will be a test question," ran 
the invitation to which Mr. Davis replied : " I 
remained in prison two years and hoped in 
vain for a trial, and now scenes of insult and 
violence, producing alienation between the 
sections, would be the only result of another 
test. I am too old to serve you as I once did 
and too enfeebled by suffering to maintain 
your cause." 

Any word that might serve to still fur- 

[196] 



Freedom — Reverses — Beauvoir 

ther increase that alienation never passed 
the lips of the gentle, kindly old man, who 
still the idol of his people, preferred to all 
honors the quiet life there among the pines, 
where amidst his flowers he played with his 
children and their little friends, and far into 
the night, surrounded by his books, he worked 
assiduously upon his only defense, " The Eise 
and Fall of the Confederate States of Amer- 
ica. " The concluding paragraph of that book, 
written in the gray dawn of a summer morn- 
ing after a night of continuous labor, should 
be read by every one who would understand 
the motives that actuated Jefferson Davis in 
the great part that he played in the world's 
history. 

" In asserting the right of secession it has 
not been my wish to incite to its exercise. I 
recognize the fact that the war showed it to 
be impracticable, but this did not prove it to 
be wrong; and now that it may not be again 

[197] 



The Real Jefferson Davis 

attempted, and the Union may promote the 
general welfare, it is needful that the truth, 
the whole truth, should be known so that crim- 
ination and recrimination may forever cease, 
and then on the basis of fraternity and faith- 
ful regard for the rights of the states there 
may be written on the arch of the Union ' Esto 
perpetua.' " 

It is the voice of the soul in defeat, yet 
strong and conscious of its own integrity, 
recognizing the inevitable and praying for 
peace and the perpetuation of that Union 
which Jefferson Davis still loved. 



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XXXV. Death of 
Mr. Davis 



His life's work was done with the comple- 
tion of his book, and trusting to impartial 
posterity for that vindication of his motives 
which he realized must come some day, he 
turned away from the scenes of controversy 
and contentions, seeking in books, the con- 
verse of his friends, in long rambles with his 
children across wood and field, for oblivion of 
all painful memories. Defeat and persecution 
never embittered him. Cruel and false accu- 
sations found their way to his sylvan retreat. 
That they grievously wounded can be doubted 
by no one who knew his proud spirit, supersen- 
sitive to every insinuation of dishonor, but 
with the gentle smile of a philosopher he 
passed them by, fully realizing that his be- 
loved people of the South, at least, would 

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The Real Jefferson Davis 

understand the stainless purity of all his 
motives. 

A harsh or an unkind word never passed his 
lips concerning any of his personal or political 
enemies. In fact, it would be no more than 
the truth to say that this gentle old man cher- 
ished no sentiment of enmity toward any of 
God'screatures. The storm and stress of life 
were over, its hopes and its passions were dead, 
and grandly, majestically this man, who at 
once embodied the highest type of American 
manhood and all of the virtues of the perfect 
Christian gentleman, calmly awaited the end. 
It came on the 6th of December, 1889, in 
New Orleans, at the home of Judge Fenner, 
his life-long friend. When the news of his 
death went forth, even the voice of malice was 
subdued, and many of those who had sought 
to fix everlasting infamy upon his name ceased 
for a time to be unjust and agreed that a ma- 
jestic soul had passed. Over the bier of the 

[200] 




I 



^ * 






The Davis Monument at Richmond 




Death of Mr. Davis 

dead chieftain the whole South wept and nine 
of its governors bore him to the grave. 

No proper estimate of the life and char- 
acter of Jefferson Davis is possible in the re- 
stricted scope of this work, but lest I 
should be accused of partiality I shall here 
append the conclusion of Kidpath, the histo- 
rian, written after a residence of almost a 
year under the same roof with Mr. Davis, 
which I heartily endorse as a correct estimate 
of the man. 

"Before I had been with Mr. Davis three 
days every preconceived idea utterly and for- 
ever disappeared. Nobody doubted Mr. Davis' 
intellectual capacity, but it was not his mental 
power that most impressed me. It was his 
goodness, first of all, and then his intellectual 
integrity. I never saw an old man whose face 
bore more emphatic evidences of a gentle, re- 
fined and benignant character. He seemed to 
me the ideal embodiment of < sweetness and 

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The Real Jefferson Davis 

light.' His conversation showed that he had 
' charity for all and malice toward none.' I 
I never heard him utter an unkind word of any 
man and he spoke of nearly all of his famous 
opponents. His manner may be best described 
as gracious, so exquisitely refined, so courtly, 
yet heart warm. Mr. Davis' dignity was as 
natural and charming as the perfume of the 
rose — the fitting expression of . a serene, be- 
nign and comely moral nature. However 
handsome he may have been when excited in 
battle or debate, it surely was in his own home, 
with his family and friends around him, that 
he was seen at his best; and that best was the 
highest point of grace and refinement that the 
Southern character has reached." 

Lest any foreigner should read this state- 
ment, let me say for his benefit that there are 
two Jefferson Davises in American history — 
one is a conspirator, a rebel, a traitor and " the 
Fiend of Andersonville " — he is a myth 

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Death of Mr. Davis 

evolved from the hell-smoke of cruel war — as 
purely an imaginary a personage as Mephis- 
topheles or the Hebrew Devil; the other was 
a statesman with clean hands and pure heart, 
who served his people faithfully from budding 
manhood to hoary age, without thought of self, 
with unbending integrity, and to the best of 
his great ability — he was a man of whom all 
his countrymen who knew him personally, 
without distinction of creed political, are 
proud, and proud that he was their country- 
man. 

This is a conclusion by no means extrava- 
gant, a conclusion which, despite the fact of 
some mental faults that prevented him from 
quite attaining to the first rank of the great- 
est statesman, nevertheless leaves him pre- 
eminent as one of the purest and best of the 
men who has played a conspicuous part in the 
world's history. 

fikis. 

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